Right Behind You
by Something-Red
Summary: Rachel Berry is trying to make a name for herself as an actress in Hollywood, but someone is trying to ruin her life and make sure that doesn't happen. A private investigator named Quinn Fabray somehow becomes involved in the whole thing and gets more than she bargained for. But will she be able to help Rachel? AU Faberry set in Los Angeles. Rated M for later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

**Title:** Right Behind You

 **Rating:** M for later chapters

 **Summary:** Rachel Berry is trying to make a name for herself as an actress in Hollywood, but someone is trying to ruin her life and make sure that doesn't happen. A private investigator named Quinn Fabray somehow becomes involved in the whole thing and gets more than she bargained for. But will she be able to help Rachel?

 **Warnings:** There's definitely going to be sexual content in later chapters. I'll be sure to post any specific warnings that are needed for each individual chapter.

 **A/N:** Hello everyone! I'm glad to say that I'm back. I'm a little nervous about this one because it's not like my other stories, but I wanted to do something different. The Faberry part won't have as much angst as my stories normally do. I still hope that you'll give a shot.

* * *

It's a typical Monday. After a long afternoon spent following yet another sleazy, cheating, lying husband around Los Angeles, Quinn Fabray is grateful to finally walk the steps up to her apartment. She unlocks the door with a sigh of relief and goes inside.

She takes her expensive camera out of its bag and places it on the kitchen table. "Britt?" she calls out for her best friend, roommate, and business partner. "I'm back."

The sound of fast footsteps can be heard as a tall blonde comes out of one of the bedrooms and hurries into the living room. "Hey, Quinn! How was it?"

"Exhausting," Quinn says as she drops down onto the couch.

"You were gone forever."

"Yeah, this guy made stops with his girlfriend all over town. But Mrs. Johnson's check cleared, and she said she'll reimburse me on gas. At least she'll get half of this jerk's money in the divorce once I send her the pictures."

Brittany nods with a sad smile and sits down at the desk she had placed in the living room. She calls it their workstation and insisted it stay there because "every real business has a desk". Quinn didn't even try arguing with her when she came home to find it in the middle of their apartment that day.

"I feel so bad for her. The mistress was younger and prettier, wasn't she?" Brittany asks.

Quinn knows this is the part of the job that the other blonde hates, witnessing firsthand just how terrible some people can be. It gets to Quinn sometimes too. But she's seen a lot worse during her time with the LAPD before this little venture with Brittany. "She looks like she's barely in college," she answers. "She's probably only after him for his money. He'll get what's coming to him."

Brittany smiles and nods in agreement. "You're right. Oh!" she says as she swipes up a piece of paper from the desk and holds it out. "I forgot. You have a message!"

Quinn smiles and gets up to walk over to her. "From who?"

Brittany shrugs. "Some guy. I think he forgot to say his name. But he called about an hour ago. He said he really needs your help because he heard you're good at what you do and that he has to know if his girlfriend is cheating on him."

Quinn sighs. Another one of those cases…

"If he wants to hire me, there's paperwork he need to fill out first," she says.

"I know. And that's what I said to him," Brittany says. "But then he started sounding really sad and desperate. He offered to pay three times our rate if you could go out and find her tonight. It has to be tonight, though."

Quinn frowns. "Why tonight?"

"He thinks that his girlfriend is meeting up with the other guy tonight."

 _Three times the rate?_ Quinn thinks. "He does sound desperate."

Brittany nods. "He sounded really sad and upset."

"Did he leave a number?"

"No. Just his girlfriend's name and address. He said he'll come by first thing in the morning."

"Did he say what time?"

"No." Brittany shakes her head. "But he's going to have a check for us."

"I don't know about this," Quinn says. "I would feel a lot better if he would just come by and talk to me now. It doesn't take that long to sign the papers. This is all too rushed."

"It does seem pretty weird," Brittany says in agreement. "Maybe he's just super busy today?"

"Maybe."

Quinn weighs out the pros and cons of actually going through with this. On one hand, it's completely against protocol, not to mention unethical for her to do this without even talking to the guy first.

But on the other hand, he's offering a lot more money than she usually charges. Her private investigating firm has been off to a slow start since she started it with Brittany only a few months ago, and she really could use all the money she can get.

"I'll just tell him we can't help him when he calls back," Brittany says, breaking Quinn out of her thoughts.

She shakes her head. "I'll do it."

Brittany frowns at her. "Are you sure?"

"Yeah. Besides, it'll give me something to do tonight." She walks to the kitchen and takes her camera from the table and puts it back into the bag. She's glad she remembered to fully charge it last night.

"Okay then," Brittany says hesitantly when Quinn comes back to the living room. "Here." She hands her the information the man gave her.

Quinn takes it and sees an address along with a name.

 _Rachel Berry_

* * *

Quinn begins the drive and follows the directions on her GPS. After twenty minutes, she ends up at a really nice apartment complex in Beverly Hills. She's definitely no stranger to the area, so she's not at all surprised to find that it can only be accessed with a remote control at the gates. But lucky for her, she pulls up just as the car in front of her is going in, so she tailgates them inside.

When the voice on her GPS tells her she's there, she parks her car in an empty space and picks up the piece of paper to double-check the address. She then looks up through her windshield and sees the door to the apartment she's looking for on the first floor. It seems to have its own private garage, which is actually quite impressive. She wonders what this girl does for a living to score a place like this.

Quinn can find out all of that later. Right now, she has to be focused, so she turns the car off and rolls down the window, then sits back, and waits.

An hour later, Quinn is leaning her face against one arm propped against the rolled down window. She lets out a yawn as she continues to wait for someone to come out of that door. She knows that someone has to be there because there's a light on inside. They just need to come out already. It's quickly getting dark and she's getting restless.

She jumps when her phone suddenly starts ringing. She picks it up from the cup-holder and sees Brittany's name on the screen. She answers, "Hello?"

"He called back already," Brittany says.

Quinn sits up. "What did he say?"

"He left an email address to send the pictures to."

"Can you text it to me?"

"Uh huh! And he's going to come by first thing in the morning with a check. I made him pinky swear he would."

"He'd better be. I'm working overtime here," Quinn says with a chuckle. Her phone beeps and she looks at it to see that her battery is about to die. She chastises herself for always forgetting to bring a charger. "I have to go," she says. "But I'll see you later at home, okay?"

"How late are you going to be?"

Quinn glances at the door, which still hasn't opened, and sighs. "I guess we'll see."

"Okay. I'll send you the email address right now. Bye, Quinn!"

She hangs up the phone. Soon after, the text message from Brittany comes in. She grabs a pen and notepad from her bag and quickly scribbles the email address down. As soon as she finishes, her phone dies. She huffs and tosses it into her bag.

Her ears perk up when she hears voices and whips her head around to see the apartment door opening. She watches as two people come out, a man and a woman. The man is tall and pale with dark hair. Quinn notices that he seems to be a really sharp dresser, and his body language is particular. _Most likely gay,_ she thinks. There's no way he can be the other man in the affair.

The woman, on the other hand, is much shorter than he is. She has long, dark hair with waves that cascade over her shoulders. Her eyes are big and dark, and wildly expressive. Even from a distance, it's clear that this girl is strikingly beautiful. Quinn has a feeling that this is Rachel Berry, but she has to be sure.

The pair walk out to the front of the garage and embrace in a friendly hug. The man then walks away to his car not too far away.

"Bye, Kurt!" the woman yells out.

"Bye, Rachel! I'll see you tomorrow!"

Quinn smiles when she receives confirmation that she's found her target.

Soon after her friend leaves, Rachel brings her phone up to her ear to make a call that Quinn can't hear because of how far she is. Rachel hangs up and reaches into her purse to fish out car keys. She pushes a remote on them and the garage door then opens to reveal a brand new white Prius. She then gets inside and starts the car.

Quinn smirks as she starts her own car.

Following Rachel is no challenge at all for her. It's not like it's easy to lose a spot-free, blindingly white Prius. She trails the woman about two cars behind, making sure to keep her distance. They end up driving for just over ten minutes when Rachel turns onto a residential street nearby.

When Rachel pulls into the driveway of a one-story house, Quinn continues past and parks her car down the street to avoid suspicion. She grabs her camera and hurries out of the car. Since it's nighttime, she doesn't have to worry too much about being seen.

As she approaches the house, she ducks behind the neighbor's tree. Rachel is just now getting out of her car, so Quinn quickly gets her camera ready and positions herself.

She zooms the lens in on Rachel as she rings the doorbell. She snaps a couple of pictures. The door opens soon after and Quinn sees a taller blonde woman that seems to be a little older than Quinn herself is. She takes more pictures. She continues taking them as Rachel and the woman meet in a heated kiss. Quinn's eyebrows shoot up, but she doesn't stop taking the pictures.

They quickly go inside and slam the door shut. Quinn swiftly moves out from behind the tree to see if she can get a view inside. The front window blinds are closed, so she rushes to the side of the house. She goes to a side window and looks inside to see she has a clear shot of the living room.

Rachel is sitting on the couch alone, but not for long. The blonde woman appears with two glasses of wine moments later and hands one to Rachel before sitting down directly next to her. The begin to have a conversation that Quinn can't hear. But judging by their body language and teasing smiles, it's clearly a light, flirty atmosphere.

She brings her camera up and takes a few more pictures. Several minutes pass and they begin kissing again. Quinn begins to feel a little bad for the boyfriend. Maybe Rachel was completely gay and not into him at all?

Oh well. That's for him to figure out. He wanted the truth, and Quinn got it for him. _At least this blonde woman is hot,_ she thinks.

When Rachel and the mystery woman's make-out session becomes more intense as the seconds pass, Quinn puts the camera down and quickly turns away. She's gotten more than enough pictures for proof, so now it's time to leave. She may invade people's privacy for a living now, but she still knows when to call it a day.

She walks back to her car and gets in, but doesn't start it right away. Instead, she reaches into her bag and pulls a laptop out. She sighs in relief when she's able to connect to one of the nearby wi-fi routers and opens her email. She connects her camera to the laptop and loads all of the pictures she took of Rachel. She then types in the email address she wrote down earlier, and presses send.

She closes her laptop, feeling accomplished for tonight. She starts the car and begins the drive back home.

* * *

Quinn makes the drive back to her apartment and takes her time walking up the stairs to get to her door. She puts in her key to unlock it, but it's unexpectedly thrown open before she even has a chance to turn it.

"What's wrong, Britt?" she asks her roommate, who looks completely horrified.

"I called you like a million times!" Brittany shrieks.

"Hey, calm down." Quinn closes the door and puts a hand on her shoulder. "My phone died. What's going on?"

Brittany inhales slowly and, with wide eyes, says, "Okay, so don't freak out…"

It's too late for that. Quinn swallows. "What is it? You're scaring me."

"After you left, I got bored and googled Rachel Berry."

"Alright?"

"She's this up and coming actress."

"I've never heard of her," Quinn remarks. The news isn't exactly a shock with how nice that apartment was. Quinn really needs to start watching more TV and movies…

"Me neither! But I was reading some stuff about her in the news. She's dating this other actor, Blaine Anderson. You know him, right? The cute guy from the hospital show I always watch?"

"Sure." Quinn shakes her head, still not understanding her point. "So you're freaking out because Blaine Anderson hired us? It doesn't matter if he's a celebrity or not, as long as we use discretion just like everyone else. It's not like it's illegal and clients are clients." She's had this exact talk with Brittany many times before whenever the girl becomes paranoid that they'll get in trouble for spying on people.

"We're not going to jail and the government isn't going to abduct us," Quinn adds with a sigh.

"No!" Brittany shakes her. "That's not it! I'm not just being paranoid here."

"Then what is it?"

"That wasn't Blaine Anderson!"

Quinn feels her stomach drop as the words sink in. "Brittany, what are you talking about?"

"The man I talked to on the phone wasn't Blaine Anderson."

"How do you know that?"

"I watch his show all the time. I know his voice and that definitely wasn't him. This man's voice was really deep. It wasn't him."

"Are you sure, Britt?"

Brittany nods. "Positive."

Quinn sighs and walks over to the desk. "Is there any way you can give me the number he called from?"

"No." Brittany says cautiously, knowing Quinn is about to become even more upset. "It was blocked…"

"Fuck!" Quinn slams a fist down onto the desk. "Why didn't you tell me that earlier?"

"I don't know!"

Brittany was rapidly becoming more and more upset, not to mention scared. Quinn takes a deep breath to calm herself down. "Listen, this isn't your fault," she says. She knows it's mostly her own fault for going out and taking the pictures against her protocol in the first place. But she needs to be positive for both of their sakes right now. "It's going to be okay."

She takes a seat in the desk chair and rubs her temples. Brittany walks over and asks, "What do we do?"

Quinn thinks to herself for a minute. She's never been in this situation before. And it still doesn't make any sense to her. She voices her thoughts and says, "Why would someone want these pictures of Rachel Berry? It's not like she's a huge star or anything. _We_ didn't even know who she was before today."

Brittany simply shrugs. "Maybe they wanted the pictures to hurt her? You know, for blackmail or something?"

Quinn refuses to think that's the case. "Then why couldn't they take the pictures themselves?" Again, she gets another shrug. "Maybe this isn't as big of a deal as we're making it to be," she says. "Maybe Blaine had someone call here on his behalf? It would make sense, right? He's this big actor, and he's always busy filming that TV show."

"Yeah." Brittany nods hesitantly. "Maybe. He wouldn't want people finding out he hired us because he's famous."

"Exactly," Quinn says. "I'm sure after today, we won't have to hear about this Rachel Berry girl ever again."

"I think you're probably right."

Quinn has a dreaded feeling that she couldn't be more wrong.

* * *

Quinn decides it's best to stay at the apartment herself for when Blaine Anderson comes by. She spends most of the time praying he'll show up any minute. But as the seconds quickly tick by, her anxiety only gets worse.

She tries to be calm and collected for Brittany, who was tapping pens on the desk at an annoyingly fast pace. Quinn decides to busy herself with reading into Rachel Berry.

She mutters to herself as she reads all of the information Brittany wrote down last night, "Twenty-five. Born in LA. Went to college in New York. Moved back to LA three years ago. Blacklisted on Broadway. Only has a handful of TV and film projects under her belt…"

"It's almost noon," Brittany announces.

Quinn sighs. "I know." She looks at the other blonde when she says, "We're going to have to report this."

"Do you want me to call Santana?"

Before Quinn can answer, there's a booming knock at the door.

"That must be him!" Brittany squeals.

"Come in," Quinn calls out without any second thoughts or hesitation.

Any feeling of relief she momentarily has disappears as soon as the door is thrown open and a very pissed off Rachel Berry storms inside, and right behind her are two men.

Quinn gets up with wide eyes. "Can I help—"

"Quinn Fabray," Rachel snaps as she stops between Quinn and Brittany. "Which one of you is Quinn Fabray?"

Brittany is quick to point at the other blonde while sinking down in her chair, causing Quinn to roll her eyes. "I'm Quinn. You must be Ms. Berry."

"You!" Rachel points a finger before attempting to stomp over to her, but is held back by one of the men.

"Come on, Rachel, that's enough. The last thing you need is an assault charge," he says as he struggles to pull her back.

The man has curly hair and seems to be older than her. Quinn doesn't recognize him. She does, however, recognize the other man as the one at Rachel's apartment the night before. He hasn't said a word yet as he watches Rachel being restrained with a disapproving shake of his head.

Quinn holds her hands up. "Look, I think I know why you're here."

The older man finally releases Rachel and looks Quinn right in the eye. "You'd better start explaining."

He's just as mad as Rachel, Quinn can tell, but he seems to be better at handling himself. But before she can start answering him, she has to know who the hell he is. "Are you guys her lawyers or something?" she asks.

"Kurt Hummel, Rachel's personal assistant," the other man finally steps forward. He doesn't seem angry at all, just annoyed to be there.

"Will Schuester, Ms. Berry's manager," the curly-haired man says.

Quinn nods before looking at Rachel, who looks like she's about to burst from keeping her mouth clamped shut like her manager told her to do. There's still a murderous glare in her eyes, so Quinn takes a step back. "Ms. Berry, I know you're upset, but it seems there's been a misunderstanding."

"You have some nerve!" Rachel explodes. "What the hell did I ever do to you?"

"Nothing!" Quinn squeaks.

"Then why did you take private pictures of me—"

"It's part of my job."

"—and send them to every online gossip site in existence?"

Quinn frowns. "I'm sorry?"

"Why are you trying to out me?" Rachel screams.

"Look, I don't know what the hell you're talking about. I didn't send anything to any gossip sites!"

"For the love of God," Kurt speaks up. "We're not getting anywhere here," he says with a huff as he takes his phone out of his pocket. He swipes at the screen before holding it up to show Quinn.

She sees a TMZ headline that reads, 'Former Broadway Star and Hollywood Newcomer Rachel Berry… Batting for the Other Team?'. Underneath the headline is one of the pictures Quinn took the night before. She's horrified to see that under that reads a caption that says, 'Photographs courtesy of Quinn Fabray'.

"Explain," Will says.

"I didn't do this!" she yells.

"You didn't take the pictures?" he asks.

"No! I mean yes! But someone hired me to do it! I had no idea he was going to do this."

"Who?" Rachel and Kurt both ask at the same time.

"I don't know," Quinn says desperately.

"How can you not know?" Rachel takes a step towards her, only to be stopped by Will's hand on her shoulder. She pushes it off.

"Someone called here and said that he was your boyfriend. We just assumed it was Blaine Anderson. He said he was worried that you were cheating on him."

"Except it wasn't Blaine," Brittany pipes up. Quinn throws a sharp glare at her.

"So you just took some stranger's word for it and stalked me for pictures to give to him?" Rachel screams even louder.

"And how do you know it wasn't really him? You are cheating on him, after all," Quinn points out.

It's Rachel's turn to roll her eyes. "We're not really dating, you idiot. Blaine is gay."

"Rachel!" Will hisses.

Quinn's mouth opens, then closes. It does this several times before words are finally able to come out. "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean for any of this to happen."

"That doesn't help me at all right now!" Rachel screeches.

Kurt pulls her to the side. "Rachel, calm down. We've already had enough panic attacks today." Rachel nods and squeezes her eyes shut as she breathes deeply through her nose.

Will moves right in front of Quinn and lowers his voice. "You'd better pray that Ms. Berry doesn't decide to press charges against you. We could have your firm shut down, and I can personally see to it that you never find work again," he says in a menacing tone.

Quinn swallows at the thought, then quickly shakes her head. "Do you have any idea who would do this?" she asks Rachel. "I mean, it's not like you're super famous or anything." She quickly backtracks with, "No offense."

"I think what Quinn is trying to say," Brittany says in an attempt to help her friend out, "is why would someone do this to you when they could go after people that are even more famous? Like Brad Pitt or Katniss?" She glances at Quinn before nodding to herself in approval of the wording.

Rachel's eyes widen. "Because it's personal." She turns to Kurt and quickly says, "Do you think maybe it's _them_?"

She's met with a sigh from both Kurt and Will. Quinn frowns. "Who?"

"No one," Will interjects.

"She has this conspiracy theory that someone has been trying to ruin her career for a while now," Kurt explains.

"It's true! And this," Rachel taps his phone, "proves it."

"You've been saying this for years, Rachel. And you're just overreacting again. No one is out to ruin your life. This is probably just the work of some jerk who was bored and decided to mess with you."

Quinn looks back and forth between the two, still confused. She then looks at Will, who's pinching the bridge of his nose, and then Brittany, who just shrugs at her. "Okay, what exactly are you talking about?" Quinn asks Rachel.

"Nothing!" Will says.

Rachel ignores him. "Someone has been out to get me. They've been stalking me ever since college."

That's weird, Quinn thinks. She voices her next question, "Did you ever report it?"

"Of course I did!"

Will's phone suddenly starts ringing. He looks at Rachel then quickly goes outside to answer it.

"Do I have to remind you that the police never found any real evidence of that?" Kurt says.

Rachel huffs at him before looking at Quinn. "I have a sixth sense. I just know I'm right about this."

"Right," Quinn says. She honestly doesn't care. She's still reeling on the question of whether or not she's going to be getting sued out the ass, which Rachel still hasn't said anything about.

Will comes back into the apartment. "I have PR working overtime to fix this mess." He points a finger at Rachel and says, "Remember, you were just coming back from a club with some girlfriends, and had too much to drink. Girls do it all the time."

Rachel nods sadly. "Let's go," she says. She gives Quinn one last glare before storming out of the apartment with Kurt hot on her heels.

"We might be seeing each other again soon," Will says to her before leaving.

As soon as the door shuts, Quinn and Brittany silently look at each other as if to say, "Did all of that really just happen?"

Quinn sits on the couch and drops her face into her hands. "Fuck!" she yells.

"That was crazy," Brittany says, like she's just experienced the greatest rush of her life.

"What should I do?" Quinn cries.

"I would start by locking your bedroom door at night, because it looks like that Rachel girl wants to kill you."

Quinn groans. "Not helping." She runs a hand through her hair. "They're going to sue me and everything is going to be ruined."

"You don't know if they're going to for sure," Brittany says.

"You heard what that curly-haired fuckboy said!"

"But it's still up to Rachel," Brittany points out. "You just need to get on her good side. Then when she sees how awesome and not terrible you are, she won't sue you."

"And how am I supposed to do that?"

Brittany shrugs. "You're smart. You'll figure this out. You always do."

Quinn sighs. She gets up and grabs her bag and keys.

"Where are you going?"

"I need to be alone," she says. She opens the door, but stops to look back at her roommate, who tends to worry about her. "I'll be back later."

* * *

She drives all over town, yet ends up not really going anywhere in particular until she arrives back at her apartment. She's been gone for hours, and it's well past dark.

"Dammit," she mutters when she sees Santana's car. She sighs and kills the engine before getting out of the car.

She quietly enters the apartment and looks around when she hears voices coming from Brittany's room. Her and Santana have never been able to stand each other, and Brittany more than likely filled her girlfriend in on the events of the day. Quinn really isn't in the mood to fight tonight, so she silently sneaks into her own room.

She sits on the bed and grabs her laptop from the night stand and begins reading more about Rachel. She doesn't know why, but the brunette has her curious.

A lot of it is what she was reading earlier, and now there's the pictures Quinn took plastered everywhere. She blows out a puff of air. _This is really bad_ , she thinks. She has no idea how she can fix this.

She skips over those articles to read some older news stories. It doesn't take long for her to see that Rachel has quite a reputation for being a diva.

There's some interviews that Quinn reads. Some are a few years old from Rachel's Broadway days. Some are newer. She pauses when she comes across a question asking Rachel what it's like going from Broadway to Hollywood.

Rachel says in the article that she's just grateful to have this chance to start over after everything she's been through. She says she's sad that Broadway didn't work out for her, but she was born to act and she wasn't going to let anything stop her. She's going to keep trying.

Quinn feels a weight on her chest because she knows what it's like to nearly lose a lifelong dream. On some strange level, she understands Rachel. And with the guilt weighing down on her, she knows she has to make this up to her.

She comes up with only one option. Before she can change her mind, she gets up and grabs her keys.

* * *

After the disaster that was today, Rachel had decided to unwind at the end of the night with a relaxing bath and some wine.

When she gets out of the tub, she wraps herself up in a bath robe and heads to the kitchen. She grabs one of the wine bottles off the rack, but pauses when she's suddenly reminded of the previous night as well as the events that followed.

She scowls before shoving the bottle back and goes to the living room instead. She turns on the TV and pulls up _Funny Girl_ from her movie library and presses play.

She manages to make it about twenty minutes into the movie before her phone starts ringing next to her. She groans. She specifically told everyone not to bother her for the rest of the night.

She picks it up and sighs when she sees that it's Cassandra July calling for the millionth time. She can't ignore her forever, so she answers this time. "Hello?"

"I've been trying to call you all day," Cassandra says angrily.

"Well I'm sorry if I wasn't exactly in the mood to talk," Rachel replies sarcastically.

"You know, this is so typical of you. You have to make everything about you. Newsflash, Rachel, it isn't just your face in all of those pictures!"

"I don't know what you want me to say! You're acting like this is all my fault."

"You can at least say you're sorry this happened to me," the other woman says. "I knew I shouldn't have gotten involved with you. You're nothing but drama, and it follows you everywhere."

The last comment particularly stings. Rachel seethes. As calmly as she can, she says, "My people are taking care of it, so you don't have to worry. You can wake up tomorrow and go back to your life like nothing ever happened."

"Rachel—"

"Everything will go back to normal," she repeats. "Also, don't call me ever again." She hangs the phone up and tosses it to the side.

No longer in the mood for the movie, she turns the TV off and grabs the script that's been sitting on her coffee table all day. She thinks it can't hurt to go through the lines a few more times before shooting tomorrow's episode. After she wrapped her part on Blaine's show, she landed another guest role on a high school drama with a guaranteed five episodes in her contract.

She has several auditions lined up for other shows and movies, but they're all still small roles. Maybe this isn't where she envisioned herself being in her career at this point in her life, but she's not going to give up.

Rachel huffs when the doorbell rings. "Can I just have some time to myself?" she vents to no one as she tosses the script down and gets up from the couch and makes her way to the door.

She opens it to see one of the blonde imbeciles that she met earlier. This one was Quinn Fabray herself, if she recalls correctly. Rachel's breath hitches in surprise.

"Ms. Berry," Quinn starts, "I—" is all she gets out before the door slams in her face.

Quinn sighs. She rings the doorbell again, even though it won't do any good. "Rachel?" she calls out. "I swear I'm not up to anything. Can you please just hear me out?"

Rachel crosses her arms as she silently weighs her options. She can just call the cops and easily have this woman taken away. But if the police show up, her nosy neighbors will no doubt gossip about it. And the last thing she needs is tomorrow's tabloids saying there were police at her apartment.

"Rachel?" Quinn calls out again.

And her neighbors will definitely come out if Quinn keeps shouting like this. She opens the door. "If you have a camera or any recording device on you, I'm calling the police," she says sternly.

Quinn holds her hand up. "I don't!"

"What do you want?"

"I just want to talk."

Rachel narrows her eyes and stares at her for a moment before walking away, leaving the door open. "This better be quick. I have to be on set early in the morning."

Quinn can't believe she's actually letting her in. She hurries inside and closes the door. She quickly follows Rachel down the hallway into a large living room, checking out how nice the rest of the apartment is along the way.

"Sit," Rachel demands as she points to a couch. Quinn could probably laugh if she wasn't so nervous.

Rachel sits down across from her and says, "Hand your phone over to me, please."

Quinn does an eye roll and takes her phone out of her pocket and does as she's told. When Rachel places it face-down next to her, she says, "Happy?"

"For now," Rachel replies. "Again, what do you want?"

Quinn leans forward and recites the speech she's been preparing. "Look, I'm really sorry for everything that's happened. Had I known what was going to happen with those pictures, I never would have taken them. I'm mainly hired to expose cheating husbands and wives, and I should've used better judgment before I followed you."

Rachel sighs. "If that's all you have to say, then I really need to get to—"

"I want to help," Quinn blurts out.

Rachel pauses. "What?"

"You're convinced that someone is after you, right? That's what you said."

Nodding skeptically, Rachel says, "Someone is out to ruin me, yes. The police have never been able to do anything about it because the incidents seemed isolated. No one believes me when I say it's the same person."

Quinn wants to know more about these incidents, but that can wait for later. She considers the idea that Rachel _is_ just being overdramatic about the whole thing, but she doesn't care. Because right now, she needs to get on Rachel's good side, and worry about the rest later.

Just get on her good side, like Brittany said. Even if that means playing along with whatever crazy conspiracy theories this drama queen has come up with. So be it.

Rachel clears her throat. "So when you say you want to help…"

"I want to offer my services free of charge."

"You do?" Rachel says with a frown. Quinn nods. "Why should I let you? You're clearly not the best investigator."

Quinn rolls her eyes. "Last night was a fluke. I'm one of the best in all of Los Angeles, trust me."

"And why should I trust you? After you violated my privacy and—"

"I'm a better person than you think," Quinn interrupts. "What I do is nothing personal on my part. And again, I'm sorry that you got caught up in all of it. But if you just give me a chance, I'll prove myself. If you give me any information you have, I swear I'll find whomever it is you're looking for."

Rachel is quiet as she ponders Quinn's proposal. After a few minutes pass by, she finally says, "Fine, we have a deal."

Quinn smiles. But before she can say anything else, Rachel continues. "I still don't trust you. _At all._ So I'm coming by tomorrow with a nondisclosure agreement. Then we'll talk."

"That's great," Quinn says. She stands up from the couch, eager to get out of there. "I guess I'll see you tomorrow."

As she turns to leave, Rachel says, "If you screw up again, I won't be so forgiving."

Quinn blinks at her, then nods, and walks away.

* * *

 **A/N:** Like I said, it's just something different that I wanted to try. Thank you for reading! Be sure to let me know what you think :)


	2. Chapter 2

**Title:** Right Behind You

 **Rating:** M for later chapters

 **Summary:** Rachel Berry is trying to make a name for herself as an actress in Hollywood, but someone is trying to ruin her life and make sure that doesn't happen. A private investigator named Quinn Fabray somehow becomes involved in the whole thing and gets more than she bargained for. But will she be able to help Rachel?

 **Warnings:** None for this chapter.

 **A/N:** Hello readers! I'm so glad you've all taken an interest in this story. I hope it doesn't disappoint in the end.

Also, since some of you have been asking, new chapters will be posted every Thursday night/Friday morning.

Hope you enjoy this chapter!

* * *

"Dammit," Quinn mutters as she glares dangerously at her computer screen.

"Still nothing?" Brittany asks.

Quinn shakes her head. "Nope." She's been desperately trying to find the person that successfully conned them a couple days before. But whomever it was, they were smart enough to use a self-destructing email address, making the task of finding them nearly impossible. Quinn can't even track an IP address. This person clearly planned out every detail carefully.

"I'm bored," Brittany says from the opposite side of the desk— _workstation_.

She sighs. "Sorry, Britt."

"My job is to answer the phone and we've only gotten like ten calls today."

Quinn had cleared out her schedule for the day so she could stay behind at the apartment to wait for Rachel, which was taking a lot longer than she originally anticipated.

"It's almost five. Did she say what time she was coming?"

Quinn shakes her head. It probably would've been a good idea to ask that question last night. "Maybe she'll be here soon."

Brittany blows out a puff of air and goes back to spinning around in her desk chair. Quinn feels bad that she's been doing most of Brittany's tasks today to busy herself, but she can't leave the apartment until Rachel gets there. "Hey, if you want, I have an errand for you to run," she says.

Brittany stops spinning and grins. "Yeah?"

Quinn nods. She holds out a couple of envelopes and says, "Can you take these to the post office and have them mailed out?"

"Okay!" Brittany jumps up and slips on her coat. "Is it okay if I meet Santana afterwards for dinner? She said she's leaving work early tonight."

"Sure thing," Quinn says. As soon as Brittany leaves, the phone rings. She quickly picks it up and inwardly sighs when it's just another one of her clients following up. Where the hell is Rachel?

* * *

After more time passes and her other clients stop calling since it's now outside of business hours, Quinn stretches out on the couch and scrolls through the channels on her TV. There isn't much on, so she settles for the evening news. It seems not much has changed today in Los Angeles. Shootings, break-ins, celebrity gossip…

There's a persistent knock at the door, much like the knocking from yesterday. Quinn knows who it must be and turns the TV off.

She opens the door. "It's late," she says flatly.

"It's not even seven o'clock," Rachel says as she marches past her.

"Just let yourself in," Quinn mumbles under her breath.

"And I never said what time I would be coming by," Rachel adds. She takes off her sunglasses and gives Quinn a slight smirk.

"You should've. It would've saved me a lot of trouble."

"Must've slipped my mind." Rachel pulls two files out of her purse and sits down at Quinn's side of the desk. "Shall we?"

Quinn nods and takes Brittany's usual spot. "So, you wanted me to sign—"

"A nondisclosure agreement, yes." Rachel hands over one of the files for her to take. "Since you are technically working for me, you are not to share any information about me with any third parties. And yes, that includes pictures," she says with annoyance. "If you were to breach this agreement, I would then have grounds to take you to court."

Quinn reads through the paperwork, making sure there's not a catch in the fine print. It seems like the standard NDA. When everything looks good to her, she scribbles her signature in the spaces that require it. She then opens one of the desk drawers and pulls out one of her own forms. "You need to sign this as well."

Rachel takes it and quickly reads through it before signing it. Quinn takes it back and smiles when she sees a star at the end of the signature.

"What's so funny?" Rachel asks. She knows why Quinn is laughing, and she's ready to launch into her lecture about how stars—gold stars in particular—were a metaphor to her.

"Nothing." Quinn clears her throat. "Okay, now that that's out of the way, what exactly am I dealing with here?"

Rachel pushes the other file over to Quinn. "Details of the incidents are all in there, as well as photographs. I've also compiled a list of potential suspects."

Quinn lifts an eyebrow as she opens the file. "Suspects?"

"People I believe are suspects," Rachel clarifies.

Quinn finds that this suspect list is the first paper on top. She holds back a laugh. "There's only two people on this list."

"So you start with investigating them," Rachel says.

"Mercedes Jones?" Quinn reads off a familiar name. "As in that famous singer, Mercedes Jones?"

Rachel flinches in aggravation at the name. "Yes, her. We have a history going back to high school. She's always been jealous of me."

"And you really think that between all of her concert tours and Grammy winning, she has time to act out her high school revenge on you?"

"Yes!" Rachel says.

Quinn doesn't even bother hiding the roll of her eyes. "Rachel, we need to be serious here."

"I am serious! You have to investigate her."

"You know that's going to be nearly impossible, right? She probably has at least ten security guards around her at all times."

Rachel huffs and crosses her arms. Quinn runs a hand through her hair. "We'll come back to her, okay? Right now, I want you to tell me about the incidents."

Rachel gestures to the file. "Is that really necessary? Just read it. It's all in there."

"I know that. But I'd rather hear it in your own words," Quinn says as she pulls out a pen and notepad.

"This is going to take forever," Rachel says impatiently as she looks at her watch.

Quinn doesn't falter. "If you didn't want to be here all night, then you should've gotten here earlier," she counters.

Rachel narrows her eyes. She has to give it to Quinn, the girl is sharp if her quick-witted comebacks are anything to go by. She's probably dealt with more difficult people than Rachel in the past. It's almost impressive. "Fine." She's met her match.

Quinn nods. "By the way, I tried tracking the email address those photos were sent to and came up with nothing."

"Of course you didn't," Rachel groans. She doesn't mean it as an offense to Quinn, she's just not surprised that _they_ made sure to cover their tracks like they always do.

Quinn clears her throat and gets her pen ready. "Ready when you are."

Rachel sighs. She doesn't speak right away, and instead looks down at her hands in her lap and taps her thumbs together. She does this for a few minutes, and is thankful that Quinn isn't becoming impatient with her. She looks back up to see the blonde give a reassuring smile. "The first incident was in college," she says.

As she writes something down, Quinn says, "At the…" she pauses and flips through her notepad to another page and reads out, "New York Academy of the Dramatic Arts?"

"Yes," Rachel answers. "We just call it NYADA." Quinn nods for her to continue. "There were… pictures. _Risqué pictures_."

Quinn furrows her brow. "So they've followed you and taken pictures before?"

Rachel shakes her head. "These weren't like the ones you took. They were a lot worse. They were pictures that I took myself. Personal pictures…" she trails off with a blush, completely embarrassed.

Quinn finally understands what she means. She doesn't want Rachel to be uncomfortable, so she's careful not to give away any hint of emotion. "Okay. So you took these pictures, and then what happened?"

"After I took them, I saved them on my computer. The next day, I went to class. And then by lunchtime, the pictures were emailed to every single person in the school. Even the faculty."

Quinn can only imagine the humiliation Rachel must've been through. "That's horrible."

"It was devastating," Rachel says. "I hid away in my dorm for a week. My parents threatened to sue NYADA if any of the students shared the pictures publicly. So the school had all of the emails erased. If any of the people that got the email show the pictures to anyone, they'd be in a lot of trouble. Luckily, that hasn't happened yet."

"What did the police say?" Quinn asks.

"That I must've somehow accidentally sent them myself," Rachel says with a scoff.

"And you're sure you didn't?"

"Of course I didn't!" Rachel says, getting riled up.

"Okay, I believe you," Quinn says before Rachel becomes too upset. "Did you look into the person you… took the pictures for? It's highly possible that they were the ones that sent them out." That would be the first thing Quinn would do.

"I didn't send them to anyone."

Confused, Quinn frowns. "You didn't?"

Rachel shakes her head and prepares herself for another humiliating revelation. "I know it's stupid, but at the time, I was considering an audition for a part in a small play that required a nude scene. I just wanted to feel confident with myself. So those pictures were for me, and me only."

"That's not stupid," Quinn says. She really does feel awful that Rachel had to go through that. Quinn doesn't think she would ever show her face again. She picks her pen back up and says, "Did you have a roommate at the time?"

"No. I lived in that dorm by myself."

"Did anyone else have access to it? Did any of your friends have a key or anything like that?"

Rachel shakes her head. "No."

Quinn sighs. "Then it's likely that your computer was hacked."

"That's the conclusion I came to as well," Rachel says with a roll of her eyes.

Quinn quickly jots something down. "I'll definitely look into it." She glances back up at Rachel and says, "Can you tell me about the next incident?"

Rachel reaches across the desk and takes the file she had earlier handed to Quinn. She sorts through the contents and pulls out a photograph. "After the opening night of my first off-Broadway show, I came back to my dressing room to find this."

Quinn takes the picture and examines it. It's a picture of what seems to be a dressing room… after a tornado had gone through it. Clothes and makeup were thrown all over the floor. All of the mirrors were smashed. On the back wall, written with spray-paint, were the words _WORTHLESS WHORE!_

Underneath that was various photographs of Rachel taped to the wall with her eyes and mouth cut out. "Jesus," Quinn mutters.

"I was scared, as you can imagine," Rachel says quietly.

"Were you still going to NYADA at this time?"

"No. I had already graduated. The police interviewed everyone that was backstage. No one saw or heard anything."

Quinn nods and puts the picture away. "Let me guess, the police decided that it was just a viscous prank, completely unrelated to the first incident?"

"How did you know?"

"I used to be a cop," Quinn says. "That's probably what I would've thought."

Rachel is intrigued by this new information, but she can ask questions about that another time. "Is that what you think now?"

Quinn shrugs. "I'm not sure. It could be unrelated. But it's also something I'll look into."

"Good."

"Is there anything else?"

Rachel nods. "After the picture incident at school, I changed my email and password. But they hacked into it again and sent a lengthy email to Carmen Tibideaux using my address."

"Who?"

"The Dean at NYADA. The email basically said that I was on my way to becoming famous on Broadway no thanks to her or that school. It also contained some rather graphic insults. She wasn't happy, to say the least. She has a lot of powerful connections. And before I knew it, I was blacklisted on Broadway. Everyone refused to work with me." Rachel points to the file. "There's a copy of the email in there."

"Did you try explaining to her what happened?"

"Yes. She didn't believe me. No one did. Everyone thought that I was gloating about how famous I was becoming and rubbed it in Carmen's face. But I would never do that."

"Were you living with anyone at the time?"

"Just Kurt."

"Did he have access to your phone or computer?"

Rachel shakes her head. "Nobody did. After the first incident, I became really paranoid and upgraded all of my security software."

"But they still got in?"

"Yes," Rachel says with a sigh. "Now I just prefer not to use email at all."

Quinn chuckles to herself. "Okay, so after you were blacklisted in New York, you moved back here to Hollywood?"

"That is correct. I've been here for almost three years now."

"And has anything else happened since you've been back?"

"Not until yesterday, when I woke up to my manager screaming about the pictures you took," Rachel answers bitterly.

Quinn flinches, but tries to hide it. "I'm sorr—"

"You're sorry, I know." Rachel takes a breath. "I don't care. Just make this right and help me find this person."

Quinn is quickly learning that Rachel has been through hell, so she's trying to be sympathetic with her. "Okay."

Rachel pushes the file back over to Quinn and stands up from the desk to leave. She's just opened up about all that's happened to this stranger and she needs to get out of there. Quinn had this natural way of making her feel at ease, and that scares her.

"I believe that's it," is all Rachel says. She looks at the blonde. "Thank you, Quinn." She moves to get up, but pauses when Quinn speaks.

"Rachel," she says to stall her from leaving. She's not sure why, though.

Rachel waits for her to say something. "Yes?"

"Is there a number I can contact you at?" she asks. "So I can give you updates on anything I find."

"I'll contact you," Rachel says. She knows that she needs to get with Will to see if he'd rather put his number on file instead of hers because they're still not sure about Quinn.

Quinn sighs. "Okay then." She rummages through the desk until she finds what she's looking for and gives Rachel a business card. "I have a couple of other cases that I need to get started on tomorrow. But as soon as I finish those, I'll start working on yours, okay?"

"Okay." Rachel gets up and puts her sunglasses back on.

"You know it's already dark out, right?" she says with an amused smile.

Rachel ignores her and heads for the door. "Goodnight, Quinn."

Quinn shakes her head and opens the file in front of her so she can get more details on the case. A couple minutes later, she perks up when the door opens again, only to be slightly disappointed when it's just Brittany.

"Hey. I just ran into the Rachel in the parking lot. I asked her if I could feel how soft her hair was, and she let me," her roommate says with a big grin as she makes her way to the couch. "She was a little scared at first, but I promised I wasn't going to murder her."

"Oh God. Seriously, Britt?" Quinn says as she rubs her temples.

Brittany shrugs. "She was cool with it. And she said people have asked to do weirder things to her."

"I bet they have," she says.

"How did it go with her?"

"Better than I expected." Quinn picks up the file and gestures to it. "There's a lot I need to brief you on."

"Can we do that later? I'm kind of tired right now."

"Sure." Quinn's actually pretty tired too.

Brittany smiles and crosses her legs. "So, what did you talk about?"

"Just the case," Quinn answers as she continues skimming through the file.

"Was she being nice to you this time?"

Quinn smiles to herself. "Kind of. She can be obnoxious, but I have a feeling she's not that bad once you get to know her."

Brittany silently studies her and smirks. "You like her, don't you?"

Quinn puts the file down. "What? No."

"You totally do! I get it. She's super hot."

"I don't. She's annoying and self-centered."

"But you just said she's probably not that bad."

"I'm hoping she's not for my sake since I'm going to be seeing a lot more of her," Quinn explains defensively.

But like most things Brittany doesn't want to hear, it's in one ear and out the other. "Are you going to ask her out?"

"No!"

Brittany pouts. "Why not?"

"Because I'm not into her like that. And even if I was, there's like a million other reasons why I can't."

"Like what?"

"For starters, she hates me. I almost outed her to the whole world."

"But that wasn't really your fault."

"That doesn't change the fact that she hates me."

"I really don't think she hates you."

Quinn sighs. "Can we stop talking about this?"

Brittany huffs. "You're so grumpy lately."

"I know. And I'm sorry."

"Maybe you just need to get laid."

"Brittany!" Quinn throws her hands up.

"Okay, maybe not get laid, but actually date someone and have it mean something to you for once."

Quinn gripes under her breath. Brittany has always gotten onto her about her dating life. She supposes she can't blame her. She hasn't dated a girl for longer than a couple of months in… forever.

"I'm happy by myself," she says.

"I think you'd be happier if you found someone. You could be like me and San."

Quinn rolls her eyes at the mention of Santana.

"Don't roll your eyes at me. Also, you guys need to make nice already."

"Never going to happen," Quinn mutters. She would probably make the effort if this was a new person in her life that Brittany was dating. But she already knew Santana long before Brittany did, and they haven't gotten along since day one. "I'm only tolerating her being around because of you, Britt."

She remembers that fateful day vividly. Brittany had gone to the precinct to visit her for lunch. Then when Quinn got home later that night, her roommate was telling her all about another detective in the unit that she met on her way out after visiting Quinn. They flirted, and eventually exchanged numbers. Quinn was horrified to learn that it was none other than Santana _fucking_ Lopez.

So even after leaving LAPD, she's cursed with still having to see Santana on a regular basis. But her former colleague seems to make Brittany happy, so whatever.

"I still think you should ask her out."

"Brittany," Quinn says sternly.

"Fine." Brittany gets up and walks to her room. "I'll drop it—for now."

The door closes before Quinn has a chance to respond. She wonders why her roommate is being so persistent about her and Rachel. But then again, Brittany is always trying to set her up with random people. She really thinks Quinn needs to meet someone, and Quinn sometimes thinks that she does too. But now isn't the time, not when she's trying to keep a PI firm together. But maybe one day.

And it's sure as hell not going to be with Rachel Berry.

* * *

"Cut!"

Rachel sighs in relief when she can finally stop making out with her cast-mate for the eighth time in a row. She sincerely hopes this last take was good enough. This is her last scene for the day and she just wants to leave already.

So she smiles when the director calls out, "That take was perfect, guys. Let's set up for the next one."

She climbs off the set bed and turns to her costar, Brody. "See you next week!"

"Yeah. Great job today, by the way," he says. "You're a lot better some of the other girls here."

She knows by the tone of his voice that he's referring to their kissing scenes, and it takes everything in her not to visibly gag. She forces a smile and nods before quickly exiting the set. She goes to wardrobe and changes out of her costume.

Rachel then walks out of the building and hurries to her trailer. She goes inside and suppresses a groan when she sees Will already in there waiting for her. She just wants some alone time.

Will puts down the magazine he was reading. "Wrapped for the day?"

She nods and opens the fridge to grab a water. "Just one more episode," she says. She didn't really care for this gig, but Will pressured her to take it. She can't go too long without a job. Not only does Kurt's paychecks depend on her, Will also makes money off of her too. But playing a teenager in a high school drama series isn't exactly appealing to her.

"Sue said she's already securing some auditions for you," Will says as he texts on his phone.

"Auditions for what?" she asks.

"Just a few TV projects."

"I'm tired of doing TV," she whines. She's here to make a name for herself. She doesn't just want to be known as that one girl from that one show for that one episode.

Will sighs. "Alright, I'll see if we can find any film good parts that would suit you."

"Thank you." She's only appeared in two movies so far, which isn't bad considering how long she's been back in L.A. for. She's just going crazy. She _needs_ to be in the spotlight.

"Did you have Fabray sign the NDA?" Will asks.

She's caught off guard by the sudden mention of Quinn and stammers, "Yes. She said she's going to start on the case soon."

"How soon?"

Rachel shrugs. "Soon."

Will shakes his head. "It's a waste of time hiring them. They're complete morons."

Rachel is about to retort, but stops herself. That Brittany girl seems like she wouldn't hurt a fly, but she also isn't exactly the brightest crayon in the box from what Rachel can gather. She still thinks it's harsh to go as far as calling her a moron. And Quinn…

She doesn't know what to think of Quinn yet. But Rachel feels she's anything but moronic.

"They're offering their services for free. So I might as well."

"Fabray is only doing this because she's afraid you're going to sue her otherwise."

"Probably," Rachel says. After she had finally calmed down to think rationally, she decided that Quinn had just been a scapegoat in the whole mess. She has no plans to file a lawsuit. She also has no plans to tell Quinn that either.

"Also, do you want me to give her my number or yours for when she needs to contact me?" she asks.

Will waves a hand around in the air. "I don't want to deal with her. And it's not safe to give her your private number. Just give her Kurt's."

She nods. Speaking of which, she says, "Where is Kurt anyway?"

"He said he got held up at the drycleaners. He should be back soon."

"I'll just tell him to meet me at my apartment," she says as she grabs her purse. "I'll see you next week?"

Will shakes his head. "We have a meeting with Sue tomorrow."

Rachel groans. She had completely forgotten about that. "Fine. Then I'll see you tomorrow." She quickly leaves in fear that he'll start talking again and walks to her car. Once she's inside, she sends a message to Kurt saying to meet at her place.

After she sends it, she pauses for a moment. She digs through her bag and pulls out the card that Quinn gave her and stares at it. Will instructed her to make sure Quinn contacts her through Kurt, so that's what she should do.

But what if she gave Quinn her actual number? She would be able to talk to the blonde directly that way. And if there's some really important information that Quinn finds out, Rachel can know right away instead of waiting on Kurt to say something.

Right. This is the logical option. She types in the number on the card.

 **Rachel: This is the number you may contact me at. –Rachel Berry**

She hits send.

* * *

 **A/N:** Thanks for reading! Feel free to let me know what you think so far.


	3. Chapter 3

**Title:** Right Behind You

 **Rating:** M for later chapters

 **Summary:** Rachel Berry is trying to make a name for herself as an actress in Hollywood, but someone is trying to ruin her life and make sure that doesn't happen. A private investigator named Quinn Fabray somehow becomes involved in the whole thing and gets more than she bargained for. But will she be able to help Rachel?

 **Warnings:** None for this chapter.

 **A/N:** Hello everyone! I hope you all enjoy this chapter :)

* * *

Quinn waltzes through the lobby of the Beverly Wilshire, seemingly confident on the exterior, but really mentally preparing herself for what she's about to try and pull off. She knows deep down that this is all probably just a waste of time, and she's only doing it to humor Rachel. But who knows, maybe she'll get some useful information.

She reaches the elevator and steps inside. She then pushes the button for one of the top floors. She wrings her hands together nervously and waits. As soon as the doors open moments later, she takes a deep breath and steps outside. It's show time.

She walks down the hallway and stops at the room she's looking for. She knocks and waits. It takes a few minutes for an exhausted-looking assistant to answer the door.

"Are you the 1:30?" the girl asks.

Quinn smiles. "Yes. From Us Weekly."

She's ushered inside the large room. The assistant glances over the clipboard and frowns. "There's someone else from Us Weekly scheduled at 4:30. I don't see anything for 1:30."

Quinn shrugs. "Probably a mistake on our part. I'll let my boss know when I get back to the office."

The assistant nods with a smile. Quinn assumes she bought it. "Can I see your credentials?"

Quinn hands over the ID badge that Brittany made for her. She was in a hurry, so she only had time to glance at it to make sure it looked authentic enough before she shoved it into her bag.

The assistant stares at it peculiarly. "Okay… Ms. Tubbington. Ms. Jones will be ready shortly."

Quinn takes the badge back and rolls her eyes when she finally sees the made-up name. The assistant disappears into the backroom. Quinn paces around the main room as she waits. It's a really nice suite, definitely bigger than her apartment. And to think it's only being used for interviews for the day.

"Ms. Jones will see you now," the assistant says as she reappears.

Quinn follows her into the room to see Mercedes Jones sitting on the couch by the window as she types away on her phone.

"This is Charity Tubbington from Us Weekly," the assistant says before leaving the room.

Mercedes looks up and frowns. "Your name is seriously Charity?"

"Yeah." Quinn clears her throat as she sits down in the chair opposite from the couch. She makes up the first bullshit she can think of. "My parents met in the Peace Corps…" she says lamely.

"Girl, you don't gotta explain anything to me. My mother named me after a car," Mercedes says jokingly.

Quinn chuckles. She pulls her notepad out of her bag, as well as a recorder. "Do you mind if I record this?" When Mercedes shakes her head, she pushes the record button. "I know that you're probably incredibly busy, so I'll try not to take up too much of your time."

"I have interviews scheduled all afternoon. You get twenty minutes."

"Right." Quinn looks at the list of questions she had already written down. "Your new album is going to be out this fall. Are you excited for it?"

"Oh definitely. This is, personally, my most anticipated project to date."

"Yeah?"

Mercedes nods. "I mean, don't get me wrong. My last album was good—"

"Didn't it win Album of the Year? And several other Grammys?"

"Yes. But this new one is my masterpiece. It's going to break records."

"I'll be sure that I buy it as soon as it's out," Quinn says. "And I'll make sure that our readers do, too."

"Good." Mercedes glances back down at her phone for a moment.

"Anyway," Quinn continues. "Why don't we talk about life before you were famous? Did you grow up here?"

"Born and raised."

"Did you always know that you wanted to be a singer?"

Mercedes smiles. "Always. I started singing with my church choir when I was five."

"Five? Wow."

"And I also did show choir all throughout high school."

Quinn perks up. This is her opening. "And where did you go to high school?"

"McKinley High."

Quinn nods as she pretends to write everything down. "You know, I heard that Rachel Berry, the actress, was a classmate of yours. Did you two know each other?"

She watches as Mercedes groans. "Yes, we knew each other."

"Were you friends?"

"Not exactly. More like rivals."

"But she was in the Glee club with you, right?"

Mercedes narrows her eyes. "Yes."

"Since you say that you were rivals, were there any altercations between you that you can recall?"

Mercedes crosses her arms. "What is this? Are you writing a piece on me, or trying to stir up a celebrity feud?"

Quinn starts panicking. The jig is up. "No! I'm not—"

"Because I haven't talked to Rachel in years."

"Yes, I get that. Sorry. Moving on now…"

"She talked to you, didn't she?" Mercedes doesn't seem to want to change the subject. She points to the recorder and says, "And turn that damn thing off."

Quinn quickly snatches it up and pushes the button to stop recording. "Look, this isn't what you think. Yes, I've spoken to Rachel, but—"

"And I'm guessing she had nothing but nice things to say about me," Mercedes says sarcastically. She looks Quinn up and down and says, "Are you really from Us Weekly?"

Quinn sighs. "I—"

Mercedes scoffs. "I should've known. 'Charity Tubbington'? Please. You'd better leave right now before I call security."

"You don't have to do that," Quinn rushes out. "I'm leaving. I just have one question. Do you know of anyone that would have reason to hate Rachel Berry enough to sabotage her career?"

"Have you met Rachel Berry?" Quinn nods. "Then you should know it's not that hard to see why anyone would hate her. Now get out."

Quinn shoves the notepad and recorder back into her bag and gets up. "Thanks for not calling the cops!" she calls out as she hurries out of the room. She glances at the confused assistant and smiles as she all but runs out of the suite.

She gets inside of her car two blocks away from the hotel. She then pulls out her notepad and opens it to cross out Mercedes Jones' name.

Her phone begins ringing. She distractedly answers without looking to see who it is. "Quinn Fabray."

"Did you talk to her already?" a familiar voice asks.

"I just left."

"What did you find out?"

Quinn sighs. "Rachel, it's not her." Mercedes didn't exactly have to spell it out. But like Quinn had already pointed out to Rachel, she was one of the most successful artists in the business with nonstop tours and albums being released year after year. There's no way she would have just a couple hours to herself everyday, let alone enough time to secretly torment Rachel.

She can practically hear the brunette pouting on the other end. "But are you completely sure?"

"Yes."

"Positive?"

"Yes!" Quinn starts the car. "I'm going to look into the other name you gave me. I'll let you know if I come up with more leads, okay?"

"Fine."

"Okay. Now go bother somebody else for a change," Quinn says lightheartedly.

"I resent that."

"Don't you have a show or a movie or something to film?"

"Yes I do. Bye, Fabray."

"Bye, Berry." Quinn hangs up the phone. She smiles to herself before shaking her head and driving off.

* * *

Later, during the early evening, a knock at the door brings Quinn's attention away from the email she's typing. She frowns. "Did you get locked out again, Britt?" she calls out. When there's no response, she gets up to answer it, but instantly regrets it as soon as she opens the door.

"Fabray," the other woman greets as she walks past her.

"Lopez," Quinn replies and closes the door.

"Where's Brittany? She asked me to pick her up for dinner," Santana says as she leans against the desk.

"She went to go check the mail. She should be back soon," Quinn answers. She sits back down to finish what she was doing.

Santana crosses her arms and smirks. "So I heard about your little mishap. I gotta give you props, you lasted longer than I thought you would before your first major fuck-up. It only took a few months."

Quinn sighs. "Don't."

"Not my fault it was all over the internet."

"You know you're welcome to wait outside," Quinn snaps.

Santana laughs. "Chill out."

Brittany halts any further argument by walking in at that moment. "Hey!"

"Thank God," Quinn mumbles. She hides her grimace when the other two women embrace in a chaste kiss.

"Quinn was just telling me about Rachel Berry," Santana says with another devious smirk.

Quinn levels her with a glare. _Really?_

"Oh yeah! Rachel's letting us help her!" Brittany says cheerfully.

"Yeah? Help her with what?"

"That's confidential," Quinn blurts out. She looks at Brittany apologetically. "Sorry, but you know we can't talk about our clients with anyone. Even—" she gestures to Santana.

Brittany pouts. "I know." Santana looks at Quinn suspiciously until her girlfriend says, "Ready?"

Santana nods. She glances at Quinn once more and says, "Call me after your next screw-up and I'll make sure you get one of the nicer cells at the precinct."

"Oh my God, get out!" Quinn yells.

"We're going," Brittany says as she throws a menacing glare at her girlfriend and dragging them both out of the apartment.

Quinn drops her head into her hands when they're finally gone. "Fucking shit…"

Her phone begins vibrating next to her on the desk. She picks it up to see an unknown number. She thinks about ignoring it, but it could be important.

"Quinn Fabray," she snaps into the phone.

"…is this a bad time?" She knows that voice. She's about to ask, but then he says, "It's Kurt Hummel, by the way. Rachel Berry's assistant."

Quinn rubs her forehead. "Right, Kurt. Sorry. Is everything okay?"

She can hear Rachel shouting in the background while Kurt sighs. "Not exactly. Can you get to the set as soon as you can?"

She's out of her chair in an instant. "Where do you want me to go?"

"Do you know where the Paramount lot is?"

"Yeah."

"I'll put your name down on the list so security will let you through. The guard at the gate should tell you where to go."

"I'll be there as soon as I can."

* * *

When Quinn pulls into the entrance of the studio, she follows one of the guards to the far end where several trailers are. After she's shown to Rachel's trailer, she knocks on the door.

"Who is it?" she hears Kurt call out.

"It's Quinn Fabray."

He opens the door and smiles at her. "Just in time." He lets her inside where she sees Rachel pacing back and forth, still shouting like she was before. Will is trying to calm her down.

"There is seriously nothing we can do about this? Are you freaking kidding me?"

"Rachel, there's nothing to do. They let him off with a warning. This is the first time it's happened."

"Here. The first time it's happened here," Rachel says dramatically. "I'm getting a restraining order. I don't care."

"Fine," Will says. "I'll have one filled out and sent to a judge tomorrow morning."

"Thank you."

"Uh, guys?" Quinn waves a hand around to get their attention. "What's going on?"

"Jacob Ben Israel was caught trespassing on the lot about an hour ago," Kurt explains. "He was peeking into different trailers trying to find Rachel's."

"Jacob Ben Israel?" Quinn asks. "Isn't he—"

"The other person on the list of suspects I gave you." Rachel inhales. "He's crazy. He's had this weird obsession with me ever since high school!"

"Right," Quinn says. She read that much in the file.

"You need to do your job and look into him," Will says to her furiously. He turns to Rachel. "You have more personal drama than all of the other clients I've had combined!"

"And that's my fault?" Rachel shrieks. "I didn't ask for any of this, Schuester!"

"You should be grateful that I'm still sticking around at all!"

"Holy crap," Quinn mutters as she takes a seat on the couch next to Kurt.

"It happens at least once a week," he says. "The dramatic fights, not the crazy stalker showing up on set." She nods in understanding.

"So they're always like this?"

"Oh definitely. He's going to storm out and threaten to quit. Then tomorrow we'll all have breakfast together like nothing ever happened."

"I can't take this right now." Will stomps over to the door. "Dealing with a child wasn't part of the job description!"

Rachel grabs a nearby water bottle and launches it at the closing door. Will is gone and she lets out a frustrated scream.

"You okay?" Kurt calls out as he scrolls through the news on his phone. Quinn just sits there with wide eyes, afraid to move or else she'll get caught in the way of Rachel's wrath.

"I hate him sometimes," Rachel says as she catches her breath. She feels embarrassed that Quinn had to witness all of that.

"You hate him all the time," Kurt answers. "So anyway, I think Quinn here was saying she's going to follow Jacob around for a little while." He nudges her.

She rolls her eyes. "I guess so."

"Can you start tonight?" Rachel quickly asks.

Quinn looks at her. "I'll start tomorrow. I need to go home and pull up his information first."

Rachel nods. "Thank you." She pushes her hair out of her face and takes another breath.

"I'm sorry you had to come all of the way out here," Kurt says. "I didn't think I would be able to relay the message on the phone with Rachel screaming and all."

Rachel blushes and looks away. A knock at the door saves her from further humiliation.

"Who is it?" Kurt yells.

"It's Sam," the voice calls back.

Quinn recognizes the voice and sits up straighter. "Sam, as in Sam Evans?" she asks. Kurt nods.

Rachel groans and looks at Kurt. "Not now," she whispers. "Get rid of him!"

Kurt gets up and opens the door just enough to stick his head out. "Sorry, Sam. But Rachel can't talk right now."

"I heard about what happened. I just want to make sure she's alright," the young actor says. Quinn gets up and sees that he's trying to look past Kurt for Rachel.

"She's fine. Everything is fine. She just needs her space right now."

"Rachel, I'm here for you if you need anything!" Sam yells, hoping that she can hear. He sees Quinn and frowns. "Who are you?"

"She works with us. This really isn't a good time. Goodnight, Sam." Kurt slams the door shut before he can say anything else.

Quinn looks at Rachel and quirks an eyebrow. "Didn't you used to date?" She air-quotes the last word.

Rachel nods with a huff. "We signed a contract and accompanied each other to public outings for a few months."

"But when the contract expired, he tried to ask her out for real," Kurt explains.

"And I made it clear that I wasn't interested in him like that," Rachel adds. "So I offered to remain friends."

"It was like a kick in the balls. You know, with how famous he is and all. But he's still persistent. Even though she's," he air-quotes, "dating Blaine now. I guess Sam really likes you."

"Wow," Quinn says. "You learn something new every day."

"He's shooting a movie on this lot," Kurt says. "And he just happens to run into us every day."

"Can we stop talking about Sam now?" Rachel asks. "Fabray, as soon as you find out anything on Jacob, I want you to call me."

Quinn nods. "Got it."

"Well I for one have had enough entertainment for one evening. I'm going to call it a night," Kurt announces. "Rachel, you going to be okay? One of the guards is supposed to walk you to your car."

Rachel nods. "I'll be fine."

"Quinn, always a pleasure," he smiles. "Goodnight!"

When the door closes leaving just Rachel and Quinn alone, Rachel sighs and sits down on the couch, dropping her head into her hands.

Quinn continues standing there awkwardly for a moment before clearing her throat. "I should probably—"

"You must think this whole thing is insane," Rachel mumbles through her hands.

Quinn frowns. Despite herself, she carefully takes a seat on the other end of the couch. "If it makes you feel any better," she smiles when Rachel drops her hands, "I've dealt with a lot stranger cases."

"When you were a cop?"

"Yeah. I mean, this is LA after all."

Rachel looks at her with a inquisitive expression. "How long were you a cop for?"

"Five years. I was a detective for the last two years."

"What kind of detective?"

"Homicide," Quinn answers. "Then I moved to Missing Persons. It was a little less depressing."

"That sounds awful," Rachel says.

Quinn shrugs. "Now I mainly work on infidelity and insurance fraud cases. So this is probably the most exciting thing to happen to me in months."

Rachel turns to her. She's been curious about this woman ever since she showed up at her apartment to discuss the case. "Why did you quit the force?"

Quinn purses her lips. "It's complicated."

"Were you fired?"

Quinn looks at her. She wonders if this girl has a filter. "It was requested that I resign."

"So you were fired." Nope. No filter.

"Not officially." Quinn rubs the back of her neck.

Rachel isn't intentionally trying to make her uncomfortable. She's just genuinely curious. "What happened?"

"It's not easy for me to talk about," Quinn says, a little harsher than she intended it to be.

"I'm sorry. I wasn't—"

"No, I'm sorry," she says quickly. "It's still a sore subject."

Rachel nods in understanding.

"I'll go," Quinn says as she stands up. She softens her tone as she regards Rachel with sympathetic eyes. "I know you've had a long night, and you probably just want to get home. So… I'll go now."

Rachel wants to say something to make her stay just a little longer. But she doesn't know what to say. And she doesn't know why she wants her to stay in the first place. Instead, she nods. "Goodnight, Quinn."

"I'll see what I can find on this Israel guy tomorrow." Quinn pauses. "Is there anything I should know about him first?"

Rachel rolls her eyes. "He's obsessive. And sometimes manipulative. If he says anything to you, just don't let it get to you."

Quinn nods. "Should I try to keep my distance?"

Rachel chuckles. "Trust me, you can take him. Don't worry about that."

Quinn smiles and turns to leave. "Goodnight, Rachel."

* * *

Jacob Ben Israel turns out to be a little harder to track than Quinn had anticipated. But only a little. Since he's a journalist for some shitty local paper, he likely doesn't want his address to be public information. But Quinn still has access to DMV records, so she finds it within minutes.

She also calls her former partner, Noah Puckerman, and convinces him to send her Israel's credit card history from the past month.

"I'm only doing this because I still owe you a favor," Puckerman says over the phone.

"And I appreciate it," Quinn replies.

"Does this mean I can take you out for a good time now?"

She rolls her eyes. "In your dreams, Puck."

"I'll tell Lopez you said hi."

Quinn hangs up right after that. She doesn't have to wait long until the email comes in with the information she was looking for. Brittany is out running errands, so Quinn sits in the apartment by herself.

She doesn't see anything out of the ordinary in the statement. But something that does catch her eye is that he made some transactions in Florida the day Quinn was sent out to get pictures of Rachel. It looks like he was there for two days before he returned to LA.

Not that this is an alibi in any way. The person that called Quinn could easily have done it from anywhere in the country. She just needs to know Israel's whereabouts throughout the entire ordeal.

She closes her laptop. It's time to go find him. She picks up her phone and looks up the number for the place he works at and calls it. When a receptionist answers, Quinn says, "I'd like to speak with Jacob Ben Israel. Is he in right now?"

"I'm sorry, but he just left for the day. Can I take a message?"

Quinn smirks. "No thanks." She hangs up the phone and grabs her keys, knowing exactly where to go now.

* * *

She finds the address in a seedy area just west of downtown. She parks in front of a cheap apartment building and kills the engine.

Before she can get out, an older station wagon suddenly pulls up next to her. A man with a head of huge curly hair jumps out with a messenger bag slung over his shoulder and a camera strapped to his neck as he hurries to the building. Quinn doesn't have to look at his face to know it's Jacob Ben Israel. She was just going to get out and ask him some questions. But now she's curious, so she decides to just watch.

He drops his bag halfway there and several pieces of paper spill out. Probably things for work. He drops down and scrambles to shove everything back into his bag. Quinn lifts an eyebrow at the scene.

He climbs up the stairs two at a time at lightening speed and disappears inside a door on the second story. She drums her fingers on the steering wheel for a few minutes and nearly jumps out of her skin when the door is thrown open and he comes running back out. He's changed clothes, but he still has his camera.

He's walking right in her direction. Quinn reclines her seat and tries to get out of sight so she doesn't look suspicious. But he's completely oblivious to her. He walks right past her and gets back into his own car.

She waits until he's almost out of the parking lot before she starts the engine again and begins tailing him. It doesn't take long before she has a feeling of what direction they're headed in. She sighs and grabs her phone from her pocket and calls Kurt.

"Fabray? Any good news?" he answers.

"I just have a quick question," she says.

"Okay?"

"Is Rachel on her way home right now?"

"Yes… Why are you asking?"

She doesn't answer his question. "Does she always go home at this time on," she pauses to remember what day of the week it is, "Tuesdays?"

"Yeah. She's uptight about her schedule. Now what's going on?"

"I'm about to find out. It's about Jacob Ben Israel. I'll keep you posted. Keep your phone on."

"Should I warn Rachel?"

"No," Quinn says. "She's just going to freak out again. I'll take care of this."

She hears Kurt sigh. "Alright. I'll be waiting for your call."

"Bye." She hangs up and speeds up a little to keep up with him. It's harder to tail cars when it's dark outside, but she doesn't lose him.

She's proven right when they pull up next to Rachel's apartment complex. Jacob parks his car on the side of the street across from the apartments. Quinn stays back about a hundred feet and parks her own car.

She watches him through her windshield. He gets out of the car and hurries over to the back gate of the building. He struggles to climb over the gate and lands on a bush on the other side. Quinn frowns and gets out of the car.

She hurries over and climbs over the same gate, only landing much more gracefully than he did, and looks around. She can't see where he is, so she walks further, making sure to keep quiet in her steps.

She recognizes Rachel's Prius pulling up further down from where she is. She sees the brunette get out of the car, wearing those damn sunglasses on top of her head even though it's dark, and bring her ringing cell phone up to her ear.

Quinn can't suppress the smile when she sees her. For a second, she considers approaching her, but freezes when she hears the distinct sound of a camera shutter.

She hears it again, and then several more times at once. She whips her head around, but still can't see him. She even rounds the tree she's standing next to only to find nobody there. Rachel goes inside and when she hears the click for the last time, she realizes it's coming from above her.

 _You've got to be kidding me…_ she thinks as she looks up to see him wrapped around a tree branch about ten feet above her. This guy seems to be the textbook definition of a pervert.

When he's done taking the pictures, he carefully tries to sit up on the branch and is about to climb back down when Quinn yells, "Hey!"

He jolts and loses his grip and balance before dropping out of the tree. Quinn jumps out of the way as he lands in a thud on the ground. He looks at her with panicking eyes and gets up to run away, but Quinn is faster. She catches him by the back of his shirt and uses her training from the force to shove him face-first against the tree with his arm twisted behind his back.

"That hurts!" he cries.

He struggles to break free, but Quinn doesn't budge. "Don't move," she commands in her cop voice.

Jacob stops struggling, but is still hyperventilating. "I'm sorry! It won't happen again. Please don't arrest me."

She rolls her eyes and twists his arm harder. "Weren't you just caught stalking Rachel at the studio last night?"

"Ow! Yes! I promise I won't resist if you just let me go!"

"Fine," she says. "You'd better not try running away again or I _will_ catch you."

"I won't!"

She releases him and takes a step back, satisfied when he makes good on his promise of not running away.

He squints through the dark to get a good look at her. "Quinn Fabray?" he says as he rubs his sore arm.

"You know who I am?"

He nods. "I know everyone that associates with Rachel."

She ignores the creepy comment and bends down to pick up the fallen camera. She inspects it. "Does this thing upload pictures to a cloud or something?" she asks.

Jacob looks at her and shakes his head quickly. "No. I have to connect it to a computer to get the pictures. But I swear I'll delete them!"

She ignores him and marches past him to smash the camera against the tree. "I don't think so." She tosses it to the ground.

"Hey!" he cries as he picks up the now broken camera. "Do you have any idea how much this cost me?"

"Shut up," she snaps. "Now, you're going to answer my questions before I turn you into the police."

"You mean you weren't already going to call them?" Jacob sighs in relief. "Look, I'm sure we can work something out. Please don't call them."

Quinn crosses her arms. "Why were you taking pictures of Rachel?"

"Because I love her and my pictures of her need to be up to date," he says with no shame. "Don't look at me like that. She's the love of my life!"

"She says that you've been obsessed with her since high school," Quinn says. He glares at her, but doesn't deny it. She decides to cut to the chase. "Are you the one that had those pictures of her posted all over the internet?"

"The ones with her and Cassandra July? No!"

"And why should I believe you?"

"The pictures I take of her are just for me. And besides, I would never do that to Rachel. I love her, and I would never hurt her like that!"

Quinn sighs and takes a step back. This loser was still proclaiming love for his high school crush. Yet she's certain the person she's searching for is one with pure hatred for Rachel.

"Why were you in Florida?" she asks. She needs some answers.

"For a work seminar," he replies. "You can talk to my employer and they'll confirm it."

She clenches her fists in frustration. Not only is she outside of Rachel's apartment with her idiot high school stalker, she also feels like she's getting nowhere with this case.

"You're looking for them, aren't you?" When Quinn glances at him, he clarifies, "The person trying to ruin Rachel's life?"

She doesn't say anything and stares at him. She uses the same expression she used to intimidate people into giving her information. Whenever that failed, she would use some harsh words in a tone that was so threatening, some grown men would actually break down crying like babies. And when _that_ failed, which was rare, she then got physical.

Jacob caves with the stare. "I've been trying to find them too!" he explains.

She promptly grabs him by his shirt collar and shoves him back up against the tree. "Tell me everything you know."

"I know all about what happened here! And in New York!" he says in a panic as she squeezes his shirt tighter. "I've been trying to track them down, too. But I keep coming up with nothing!"

She lets him go with a frustrated huff. This is still getting her nowhere.

"But I think I might know something."

She looks back up at him. "Tell me."

"I have reason to believe that it's someone from our high school."

"That narrows it down to only hundreds of people. I need more than that," she says angrily. She pulls her phone out and says, "If you don't give me something useful, I'm calling the cops and telling them what I found you doing, and you will go to jail."

"It has to be someone from our Glee club!" he adds.

She narrows her eyes. "Glee club?"

He nods hastily. "Rachel only spent time with those people all throughout high school. She didn't talk to anyone else outside of Glee club. It has to be one of them. I can give you all of their names."

Quinn blinks. She's finally getting somewhere. "You're sure?"

"Positive."

Quinn smiles innocently, but Jacob knows it's anything but genuine. He swallows. She grabs him by the shoulder and pushes him against the tree once more. "You're going to come to me with anymore information you get in the future. You understand?"

"Yes!" He looks as if he's about to wet himself.

"And if I catch you here, or anywhere near Rachel again, I'm going to break your arm in three different places."

"Okay!" he yells. "I'll stay away! I promise!"

"Good," she says, satisfied. "Now, give me that list of names."

* * *

 **A/N:** Don't forget to drop a line and let me know what you think!


	4. Chapter 4

**Title:** Right Behind You

 **Rating:** M for later chapters

 **Summary:** Rachel Berry is trying to make a name for herself as an actress in Hollywood, but someone is trying to ruin her life and make sure that doesn't happen. A private investigator named Quinn Fabray somehow becomes involved in the whole thing and gets more than she bargained for. But will she be able to help Rachel?

 **Warnings:** None for this chapter.

 **A/N:** This chapter ended up being longer than I originally intended. But I hope you all enjoy!

* * *

Brittany bounces up and down in her seat as she types away on the computer. Quinn is out getting evidence for a new client, but before she left, she gave Brittany some work to do to keep busy for the morning. Brittany never has a problem with entertaining herself.

The desk phone begins ringing. She picks it up and chirps, "Fabray Investigations, how may I help you?"

"This is Martin Miller calling for Ms. Fabray again."

Brittany stops bouncing and huffs. "Mr. Miller, I've already told you that we don't negotiate on our rates here."

"Just here me out, okay?" the man says angrily.

She hangs up the phone without another word. She wasn't trying to be mean; she just doesn't want to allow people to walk all over her anymore. At least having Quinn and Santana in her life has also helped her learn how to deal with difficult people.

She reaches the last name on the list that Quinn gave her and enters it into the LAPD database search bar. Quinn had just gotten access to this thing recently, and Brittany has to agree that it's really convenient. She can find people's addresses, phone numbers, criminal records, and even where they work and stuff about their families. It's also a little scary, but Quinn assured her that they would only use it for work and never for bad things.

And she also had to swear that she would never tell Santana they were using it.

She finishes typing the information for the last person. She reads over everything she's typed, proud of herself. She then prints the whole thing as well as some other documents she found that could be useful. It ended up being several pages and she doesn't think she's written this much since high school.

As she's stapling the pages together, Quinn walks in through the front door. "Hey!" she says cheerfully.

"Hey." Quinn drops down into the chair across from Brittany and pulls her laptop out of her bag. "Did you finish looking all of those people up?" she asks as she plugs the camera into her laptop.

"Mhmm," Brittany hums with a nod. She hands her typed notes over to Quinn. "There's a lot of good stuff in there. But I forgot to do spellcheck," she says with a frown.

Quinn reads through them with a smile. "This is great, Britt."

"Also, all of the things Jacob's said so far check out. See?" she points to one of the names.

Quinn nods. "That's good to know." She looks at the time on her phone and sighs. "I have to go. I'm already running late."

"For meeting Rachel?"

"Yeah," Quinn says as she shoves everything into her bag.

"She doesn't like when people are late."

"I'm very much aware of that." She grabs her keys.

"If you want her to like you more, you need to be on time," Brittany says.

"We've already talked about this, I don't care if she likes me or not. I just need to do my job."

Brittany pouts. "I still think you should ask her out when this is all over."

"Bye, Britt," Quinn yells before slamming the front door shut.

* * *

"You're over-enunciating again," Kurt drawls from the couch he's lying on.

Rachel scowls as she paces around the living room with a script in hand. "I know."

"Why are you so nervous anyway? We should wait until you know for sure that you have a second audition for this."

"Because I really want this part, Kurt. If I get a second audition, I have to be perfect." Kurt doesn't have to say anything for her to know what he's thinking. "And yes, I know that a lot of A-list actresses are going after it. But this part is _mine_. I'm not going down without a fight."

Kurt sighs as he sits up. "I just don't want you to be disappointed if you don't get it. Remember how you got your hopes up for the West Side Story revival?" When Rachel gives him a homicidal glare at the reminder, he snaps his mouth shut. Luckily, he's saved by the bell, literally.

He jumps up when the doorbell rings. "I'll get that!" He opens the door and grins when he finds a familiar—and nervous—blonde on the other side.

"Hey, Kurt. I'm supposed to meet Rachel here."

"Right! Come on in." He steps aside to let her inside the apartment. "Rachel! Quinn Fabray is here to see you!" he says as they walk into the living room together.

Rachel casts a glance at Quinn with wide eyes. "Quinn! I'm so sorry. I completely forgot about our meeting today."

"Is this a bad time?" Quinn asks, ready to reschedule.

"Not at all," Kurt chimes in. "I believe I was just leaving." He looks at Rachel for confirmation. She nods.

"We'll get back to this tomorrow." She turns to Quinn. "Kurt was just helping me run lines. I had an audition this morning, and I'm hoping for a callback," Rachel explains. "I guess I got carried away."

"I'll say," Kurt says with a roll of his eyes.

"An audition?" Quinn asks as she takes her bag off her shoulder.

Rachel nods. "I can't say for what exactly, but it's a high-profile movie that's supposed to be out next year."

"Sounds exciting," Quinn says with a beam. "I'm sure you did great at your audition."

Rachel smiles timidly. Kurt clears his throat. It's like he's not even in the room. "Anyway," he announces dramatically, "I'll leave you two alone. Call me later, okay?" he says to Rachel.

"I will."

Once he leaves, Quinn takes a seat and pulls out everything Brittany gave her earlier. "I know you're busy, so let's get right to it."

"Okay." Rachel sits across from her and clasps her hands together.

"I just have some questions that I need to ask you to help with the investigation."

"Are you making any progress?"

Quinn pauses and looks at her. "I guess we'll find out." She looks back down. "So I'm going to give you some names, and I want you to describe your relationship and history with each of them. Okay?"

Rachel frowns, but nods nevertheless. "Okay."

"The first name…" she looks down at the notes, "Sandy Ryerson." She doesn't miss the way Rachel immediately tenses.

"He was my Glee club instructor in high school," Rachel answers. "He wasn't the best show choir director, but we made it to Nationals each year."

"So he was your Glee club teacher all throughout high school?"

Rachel shakes her head. "He was fired towards the end of my senior year for—"

"For sexually harassing a student," Quinn finishes for her.

Rachel narrows her eyes. "Yes. It was an unfortunate incident for the whole club."

"It must've been especially for you, since you were the one that reported him."

Rachel chokes on air. "Why would you say that? That was just a rumor! Always has been. People were always making things up about me to make me look like a drama queen."

Quinn rolls her eyes. "Really? Because I have the official school report right here." She holds up a piece of paper.

Rachel reaches over and snatches it out of her hand. She can't believe her eyes as she reads it over. This was supposed to be confidential. "How did you get this?"

Quinn plucks it out of Rachel's hand. "Don't worry about how I do my job, just know that I can get things done." She then softly says, "Rachel, I know you don't trust me. But if you want my help, then you need to be completely honest with me. That's the only way I can help you. Now can you please tell me about what happened?"

Rachel grits her teeth. "Fine. I over exaggerated when I reported him for sexual harassment. I just wanted him fired."

"And why was that?"

"Because he gave _my_ solo for our last Nationals competition to Mercedes Jones! That was my damn solo, and he knew that!" She sits back and crosses her arms. "He was just trying to get a rise out of me."

"And it worked," Quinn says with a chuckle, trying to lighten the mood. She jots down some notes. Sandy Ryerson was definitely a suspect. "So you got your innocent teacher fired, had him put in the sex offender registry, and probably ruined his life. Have you had any contact with him since?"

Rachel silently shakes her head.

"Okay." Quinn looks at the next name. "Next person: Mike Chang."

"We hardly said more than a few words to each other," Rachel says. "I completely forgot about him until you brought him up."

Quinn nods. "Sugar Motta?"

"A complete idiot." Rachel clearly doesn't hold back how she really feels. "We were never actual friends, just acquaintances."

Quinn writes more notes. She's still going to look more into all of these people. "Rory Flanagan?"

"Who?"

"I think he was an Irish exchange student or something."

"Oh, right." Rachel shrugs. "He just stopped showing up to school. No one ever knew what happened to him."

"Hmm," Quinn says to herself. "Tina Cohen-Chang?"

"Tina was one of my best friends, besides Kurt," Rachel says. "We haven't been keeping in touch much lately."

Quinn nods. "Kitty Wilde?"

Rachel groans. "She was literally Satan in human form. She's just the worst."

Rachel clearly hasn't met Santana Lopez, Quinn thinks. "How is she the worst?"

"She tormented and bullied me for three years."

"Bullied you how?"

"Can we not talk about that?" Rachel asks. Quinn sees the pleading look and decides to let this one go for now.

"Sure." She looks at the next name. "Artie Abrams?"

"He was Tina's boyfriend. We got along fine."

"Okay. Lauren Zises?"

"Probably the scariest person in school," Rachel says. "She was on the all-boys wresting team. I honestly don't know what she was doing in the Glee club in the first place. She didn't talk to me that much. But when she did, it was mainly just to tell me to shut up."

Quinn snorts. "Sorry," she quickly says at Rachel's glare. She looks at the next name. "Finn Hudson?"

"Finn…" Rachel says pensively. "He was my high school boyfriend."

"I didn't know you also liked men," Quinn blurts out before she can stop herself.

"I don't," Rachel clarifies.

Quinn pushes away the relief she feels. She needs to be professional. "Is this the reason you broke up?"

"For the most part," Rachel says without elaborating.

"Rachel, I need you to be specific."

"I cared about him," Rachel says. "I really did. And he was the most popular boy at school. I was young, and invisible most of the time, so it was nice to be noticed for once."

"So you were using him?"

"I guess you could say that," Rachel says with a sigh. "Maybe I never had romantic feelings for him, but he was one of my better friends and actually supported my dream of acting."

"And you two broke up after you finally told him you liked girls?"

"We broke up right after graduation. I was moving to New York after all, and that was my excuse. He figured the rest out later."

"Have you seen each other at all since high school?"

Rachel nods. "He visited me in New York a few times, mainly to try to get back together. And he also came to see my show once."

Quinn jerks her head up. "Was it the show from the night when…"

"Yes," Rachel says quietly.

"Do you think he—"

"I don't want to believe it's him," Rachel answers. "I know Finn, and he's not like that."

"I know this is all hard for you, but I'm still going to have to look into him. I'm going to look into everybody."

Rachel sighs. "I understand. Who's the next person?"

Quinn looks down and inwardly groans at how difficult and defensive Rachel is probably going to be about this one. "Sunshine Corazon."

Rachel straightens with a purse of her lips. "I didn't know her for very long, but I was nice to her."

"Rachel, Kurt told me all about how you had this poor little Asian girl go to a crack house thinking it was an audition for the Glee club."

"Dammit, Kurt!" Rachel hisses. "Fine. Yes, I did. And she probably still hates me to this day. But in my defense, it wasn't an active crack house. Look into her if you must. Next person?"

Quinn smiles as she sifts through the pages. "Okay, moving on."

"Can I ask you something?" Rachel says suddenly.

Quinn looks back up at her, wondering what it could be. "Yeah?"

"Why are you only naming people from my high school Glee club?"

Quinn exhales. She can't tell Rachel about her conversation with Jacob Ben Israel without freaking her out, but she also wants— _needs_ Rachel to trust her. "I just believe that since these incidents date as far back as they do, it's likely someone you knew back then. And the kids from Glee club were who you mainly associated with." She waits for Rachel to respond. When she doesn't, she continues, "It may not be any of them. But I figured it's a good place to start."

Rachel nods. "Okay. Did you look at Jacob Ben Israel yet?"

"I have him on watch," Quinn says. "And I'm not a psychologist or anything, but his relationship with you seems to be some sort of an unrequited high school crush if I'm not mistaken."

"He's still obsessed with me after all these years," Rachel says.

"I get that. But I also have a feeling that this person is obsessed with you in a hateful way. You understand what I'm saying?"

She sees fear flash across Rachel's eyes. The actress then looks down like she's suddenly dizzy. "I get what you're saying," she says softly. "I'm just afraid it's only going to get worse. I don't even know what they're capable of."

Without thinking, Quinn reaches forward and hesitantly covers one of Rachel's hands. "I won't let anything like that happen to you. I promise."

Rachel believes Quinn, even though she has no reason to. She stares back into hazel eyes silently. They actually look a little greener than usual today. They were definitely some of the most mesmerizing pair of eyes she's ever seen. Maybe it's intuition, but something keeps telling her to trust Quinn.

She surprises them both by turning her palm upward and clasping their hands together. As watches Quinn glance down, she subtly swallows as she wonders if Quinn is feeling the same way Rachel is right now, whatever that is.

It's only when she realizes that Quinn has been stroking her hand with the pad of her thumb that Rachel pulls away and clears her throat.

"Rachel?" Quinn says nervously, not knowing exactly what's going on right now.

"So I've decided something," Rachel says.

Quinn lifts an eyebrow. "Okay?"

Rachel nods. "I've decided that you aren't as bad as I thought you were."

The blonde rolls her eyes with a smile. "I've been told I'm not that bad once you get to know me. It's just getting to know me that's the hard part. At least that's what Brittany says."

"The same could be said for me."

"Maybe you're not so bad either," Quinn counters with a smirk. "I'm actually starting to find being around you for more than ten minutes nearly tolerable," she teases, earning a swat to the shoulder from Rachel.

"I take back what I said," Rachel says with a huff.

"Oh," Quinn covers her chest with one hand, "how will I ever survive?"

Rachel stifles a laugh before deciding they need to get back to business. "Shall we finish?" She gestures to Quinn's notes.

"Oh, yes!" Quinn glances down quickly. "Um, last person… Joe Hart."

"We never spoke," Rachel says. "He was this weird Christian hippie that never wore shoes. And he always smelled really bad."

"Okay then," Quinn finishes writing. "I think that does it. We're finished here."

Rachel frowns in confusion when Quinn begins packing everything away. "You're leaving?"

"Yeah," Quinn says as she stands up. "I have someone to trail tonight. And he should be getting off work soon."

"Who?" Rachel asks curiously.

"It's for a different client, so that's confidential," Quinn explains.

"Oh."

"But don't worry. Your case is still a top priority."

"Okay. Well my guest stint on that show ended," Rachel says before Quinn can leave. "So if you need to call me or meet me for any reason, I'll have more free time now."

"That's good to know," Quinn says, trying to hold back a smile, and failing miserably. "I'll definitely try to keep you updated more."

"And I can't promise that I won't be calling you more often for updates," Rachel says.

"With all this free time you have now, maybe you should spend it with your…" Quinn pauses, remembering the other woman from the night she took Rachel's photographs, "Girlfriend?"

Rachel sighs. "Things ended between us after that fiasco."

Quinn's eyes widen. She feels completely responsible. "Oh my God, Rachel, I'm so sorry."

"It's not your fault," Rachel says quickly to save the blonde from even more guilt. "It was just a fling—nothing serious. I was honestly looking for a way to end it even before everything happened."

"Who was she?" Quinn asks. "If you don't mind me asking." She felt so terrible about violating Rachel like that, that she never once dared looking into this woman.

"My former dance instructor," Rachel mumbles.

Quinn snorts. "Wow…"

"Please keep your comments to yourself. I've gotten enough of them from Kurt and Will."

Quinn holds her hands up defensively. "Not saying anything."

"Good."

Quinn sighs. She really has to go, but she doesn't want to. "Well, I'm sorry that I ruined your fling or whatever, but I'll do my best to make it up to you." She smiles wryly. "Even if I'm not getting paid for it."

Rachel scoffs. "Don't you have somewhere to be?"

"Bye, Rachel," Quinn says with a laugh before leaving the apartment.

"Bye, Quinn," Rachel says to herself when she's alone. She shakes her head. _This isn't happening._

She marches to her bedroom to retrieve her phone and dials her best friend's number. "Kurt? Can you come by later? I need a drink…"

* * *

A low rumbling coming from next to her causes Quinn to jolt. "Brittany!"

"Sorry!" Brittany whispers. "It's just my stomach growling because I'm hungry."

"We'll pick up something to eat on the way back home," Quinn says as she brings a pair of binoculars up to her face. They were camped out near the top of a hill somewhere in Bel Air. After Quinn went home to retrieve her camera, Brittany asked if she could tag along for the night. Quinn decided to say yes for once, and maybe it wouldn't be so bad if her roommate would just stop talking.

"Have you talked to Rachel?"

"Britt, I just saw her like four hours ago."

"But have you talked to her since then?"

"No. And keep your voice down before someone spots us." The hill they were on was near a house Quinn needed a view of. And since the property was gated, this was as close as they could get. It was well past dark out, but she was still worried someone could hear them. They were lying flat on their stomachs, waiting to take the pictures. Quinn hopes it'll be soon so they can finally go home. She was starting to cramp up.

And she was also getting tired of Brittany's persistent questions.

"Do you think she wanted to kiss you when she held your hand?"

Quinn drops the binoculars with a sigh. She was really starting to regret telling Brittany about everything that goes on in her life. "I already told you it didn't mean anything. I was just comforting her."

"You should've comforted her with your mouth."

Quinn ignores her and picks up the binoculars again. She sees movement on the first floor of the house and rushes out, "Britt, get the camera ready!"

Their target leaves the house as Brittany begins snapping pictures. "Make sure you get a clear shot his face for confirmation that it's him," Quinn says.

"Got it," Brittany says with a beam. "This is so exciting!"

Quinn smiles at her. This was the first time she let her take the pictures, and Quinn is sure she's probably going to have to sort through at least a hundred of them once they get home. "I think that's good enough," she says as she puts a hand on Brittany's shoulder.

"Just a couple more!"

Brittany says it too loudly, because the man hears something and starts looking towards their direction. They both freeze.

"Who's out there?" he calls.

"Shit," Quinn mutters, slowly pulling her hood up over her head while Brittany does the same. Her heart begins pounding faster when the man walks outside of the gate and over to the hill. They were hiding in the shadows, out of the glow from the street lights, but they could still easily be found if someone were to look long enough.

"What do we do?" Brittany whispers in a panic once he's less than fifty yards away.

Quinn takes a deep breath. "Get ready to—"

He sees them. "Hey!"

"Run!"

They scramble onto their feet in a frenzy. Brittany takes off up the hill and Quinn has enough sense of mind to pick up the camera she left on the ground. She follows the other blonde as they race to the other side of the hill.

"Get back here!" the man screams. Quinn momentarily glances over her shoulder to see that he's nowhere near catching up to them. Luckily for her, he was seriously out of shape. "I'm calling the cops!" she hears and figures he's about to have a heart attack from running.

She catches up to the other blonde and yells, "Hurry, Britt!"

They get to the street on the other side of the hill where Quinn's car is parked. She blindly grabs her keys out of her coat pocket and pushes the button to unlock it.

Instead of going around the car, Brittany jumps and slides across the hood in one swift motion. Quinn could probably laugh if she wasn't in a hurry to get the hell out of there.

She throws open the driver's side door and dives in, not even bothering to close it when she starts the engine and takes off.

"Oh my God," Brittany wheezes as she puts on her seatbelt.

"Do you see him?" Quinn asks as she looks up through the rearview mirror.

Brittany turns around to look. "No. I think we lost him."

Quinn speeds up because the guy did threaten to call the cops. She puts on her seatbelt and turns on the headlights when they make it around the corner.

"That was crazy!" Brittany yells with a giggle.

Quinn laughs. "I know. Are you okay?"

"Yeah," Brittany says as she finally starts calming down. "Now I'm super hungry."

They stop off at a fast food drive-through for Brittany before arriving back at the apartment. Quinn gets out of the car and sighs when she sees Santana getting out of her own car.

"San!" Brittany squeals as she runs up to her. "Have you been waiting long?"

"I just got here," Santana says before greeting her with a kiss. Quinn silently walks past them and up the stairs to their apartment.

"Come on," Brittany exclaims, dragging Santana by the hand to follow Quinn inside. "Tonight was _so_ crazy. We were chased! It was insane!" she says as she bounds off to the kitchen.

Quinn coughs as she sits down at the desk. She can feel Santana's eyes burning into her back. She prays the other woman doesn't have her gun with her.

"I swear to God, Fabray, if you get my girlfriend killed—"

"Santana!" Brittany reappears. "Leave Quinn alone and let's go to my room."

"Client confidentiality, Britt," Quinn calls out to remind her not to tell Santana too much about their night.

"I know!"

Quinn sighs in relief when she hears Brittany's door close. She opens her laptop and gets to finishing her work for the night.

* * *

Rachel nurses her fourth cosmopolitan for the evening from her leaned back position against one arm of her couch.

"Ready for another?" Kurt calls out from the kitchen.

She sucks harder on the straw until the liquid in her cup is completely gone. "Yeah," she answers.

Her friend comes back with another cup for her and a bottle of water for himself. She sits up and takes it with a frown. "You're done already?"

"I have to drive home and I would like to make it there in one piece," he says as he sits down beside her.

She crosses her legs and starts drinking from the new cup. "You can just sleep here."

"I would love to stay here and get hammered with you all night, but someone has to run your errands in the morning." He pokes her.

Rachel smiles and leans on his shoulder affectionately. "You're the best."

"I know."

"Seriously, Kurt." She pouts because he's just not getting it. "I don't know what I would do without you."

He smirks at her. "You'd be lost without me."

"What am I going to do about Quinn?" she says abruptly. She's been thinking about everything with the blonde all night and still hasn't come up with any answers.

Kurt sighs and turns to lean against the back of the couch. "You like her."

"But how do I know for sure?"

"Because you've been talking about her all night."

Rachel's cheeks turn a light shade of pink. "Have not," she says petulantly.

He chuckles and rubs her arm. "It's okay though. I don't blame you for it. She's really pretty."

"She _is_ really pretty," Rachel agrees. "And she's funny, Kurt. She's so funny."

"I'm sure she is."

"And she's so smart. In her witty, smug, Quinn sort of way. Sometimes it just makes me want to punch her in her pretty face."

"Sounds like you've met your match."

"Ugh!" She covers her face with her hands in frustration. "No…"

"Rachel." Kurt pries her hands away. "Are you sure that you can even trust her after what she did to you?"

"No. But I do," Rachel whines. "I just do. I can't explain it."

"She could be scamming you for all you know."

She huffs. "Why do you have to ruin this for me? I thought you liked her."

"I'm just looking out for you," he says. "She could probably get enough on you to ruin your career for life if she wanted to."

"But Quinn's not like that," she says adamantly.

"But you hardly know her. And no offense, but you're not exactly the best at judging someone's character. I like Quinn a lot too. But you're my boss, _and_ my best friend, and it's my job to look after what's in your best interest."

"I know that, Kurt. But can you please just trust me on this one? I know I haven't known her for that long, but there's something about her. I just know she's not a bad person."

He nods. "Okay. But we still need to keep a close eye on her, and make sure she's not up to anything bad with you."

"I know that."

"Okay, sweetie." He takes a sip out of her drink. "So hypothetically, she's really not up to any mischief, do you think she feels the same way that you do?"

"I don't know." She throws her head back. "I don't even know if she likes other women."

"She does," Kurt says. He smirks when Rachel whips her head toward him with wide eyes. "Schuester did a thorough background check on her," he explains. "Trust me. She's into girls."

"Why didn't you tell me?" she screeches.

He shrugs. "You never asked. And I knew you'd figure it out eventually." She glares at him. "Hey, this is a good thing. This means you have a shot."

She sits up and furrows her brow. "I don't know. There's a lot prettier girls than me that she could be with instead. Ones that are probably a lot smarter, too."

"Rachel, this isn't high school anymore, and you're not just a Glee club loser." He takes the drink away from her and sets it aside. "In case you've forgotten, you're Rachel Berry. You've made it as an actress, and there's so many people that would kill to be with you."

She smiles. "Yeah?"

"Obviously," he says. " _You're_ the one that could have whomever you choose."

She pouts again. "I don't think being famous is something Quinn cares about."

"You don't think there's a chance she has feelings for you at all?"

"Maybe," Rachel says. "She was asking me about Cassandra earlier."

Kurt's eyes widen with a smile. "Really now?"

She nods. "She seemed a little jealous."

"Did you tell her that whole thing isn't a thing anymore?"

"Yes. I think I made it pretty clear that I'm not seeing anyone."

"Except for Blaine."

"Shit!" she says. She'd completely forgotten about useless Blaine. "I can't keep 'dating' Blaine if I like Quinn."

"Rachel, you've 'liked' plenty of other girls while you had a beard. This is just for publicity, just like the others."

"But this is different."

"How is it different?"

"Because it's _Quinn_."

Kurt runs a hand over his face. Rachel was already falling for the first person that wasn't tripping over their own feet to be with her since she started becoming famous. If Quinn was playing some psychological game of hard to get, it was definitely working. And if that's the case, he has to give her props.

He double takes when he realizes Rachel is calling someone on her phone. "What are you doing?"

"Schuester!" Rachel yells into the speaker. "No, I don't know what time it is. I need to talk to you."

Kurt drums his fingers against his chin as he watches in amusement. There's no stopping Rachel right now.

"I don't want to be linked to Blaine Anderson anymore," she says. She pulls the phone away for a moment to look at it in disbelief before bringing it back to her ear. "I don't care that it's under contract! You're my manager, and this is what I pay you for. Now get me out of it!" She hangs up angrily and looks at Kurt. "Can you make sure he takes care of this tomorrow?"

He nods. "Got it."

She leans back with a frustrated sigh. "I guess I'll be officially single soon. Now what do I do about her?"

"Let's look at this realistically," Kurt says. "Say Quinn actually returns these feelings for you, what would you do? Explore these feelings together?"

"I'd like to think so," Rachel says. _Exploring is one way to put it…_

"As another one of your flings? That's not the best idea if she's working for you."

"It wouldn't just be another fling with her," Rachel says defensively. "At least I hope not."

"If you want to think long-term already, you need to look at the bigger picture. Say you do start to date, it's going to be nothing but meeting up in secret all the time just like the others. And what if she gets jealous about your next PR relationship? What are you going to do then?"

"I don't know yet, Kurt."

"If you do go through with this, it's not going to last very long. I'm sorry, but it's true. I don't know Quinn that well either, but I'm sure she'll get tired of being someone's secret. I know I would."

"You're telling me things I already know, trust me." She gestures to her phone. "And Will would kill me if I came out now. Besides, he's right, it's too early in my career. I need to establish myself more."

"I'm just saying I don't think Quinn would appreciate the constant beards that get to be with you in public."

"Fine," Rachel says with finality. "No more stupid fake relationships from now on. Maybe I can't exactly come out, but I can start easing my way there. I don't need a man to boost my career. I can do this by myself. I'm Rachel _freaking_ Berry." She narrows her eyes when she sees Kurt smiling at her. "What?"

He shakes his head. "Nothing. It's just this is the girl I remember from high school. I've missed her."

Rachel sighs because Kurt's kind of right about her changing. Her career has become all about making her star rise, taking any benign role that she can get. This isn't why she became an actress.

She blames LA for this. Damn Hollywood.

"Well, this has been fun. But I'm ready to hit the hay," Kurt says. "You gonna be okay?"

She nods. "Thank you for coming over. I really needed this."

"Anytime." He stands up. "Sorry I can't stay this time."

"It's okay," she says. "Let me know when you get home."

"And let me know how it goes with Quinn from now on."

She sighs. "I guess we'll see."

Kurt nudges her. "Hang in there." As he walks to the door, he calls out over his shoulder, "Bye, Rachel."

"Bye!" she yells back and flops back down on the couch. She rubs her forehead, already dreading the headache she knows she's going to have tomorrow.

Her phone goes off with a new message. She reaches for it, hoping maybe it's a certain blonde. She's instantly disappointed when it's not.

 **Will Schuester: I'll pull some strings to get you out of the Blaine Anderson deal. But just this once. Don't forget about tomorrow's meeting.**

She groans out loud when she remembers the meeting she has with her agent. Now she's really going to have a headache.

Rachel grabs her remote and turns on the TV. There's nothing a little Fanny Brice can't help with. She pushes play and starts _Funny Girl_.

After finishing another drink, she thinks about the last time she was watching this movie, how Quinn came by to try and make amends which led to the start of their professional relationship. Rachel is still surprised that Quinn came by at all. And she even owned up to her mistakes. That says a lot about a person.

Rachel can't take this anymore. She grabs her phone, briefly grimaces at the time, and goes through her contacts until she finds what she's looking for. She presses call.

* * *

Quinn jerks her head up when she hears a buzzing sound. She looks around, confused for a moment, and realizes she must've dozed off at the desk. She glances at Brittany's room and sees that the light is off, meaning her roommate and Santana must be asleep.

She looks down and sees that it's her phone ringing that woke her up. She rubs her eyes, planning to ignore it, until she sees that it's Rachel.

She quickly picks it up and answers, "Hello?"

"Hi, Quinn," she hears on the other end.

"Rachel? Is everything okay?" She goes to her own room and closes the door.

"Yes. Geez, you worry too much."

She can hear the subtle slurring in her speech. She shakes her head and lies down on the bed.

"Quinn?"

"I'm here," she says with a yawn. "You woke me up."

"Oh, sorry. I was just bored."

"Drinking by yourself?" Quinn asks with a chuckle.

"With Kurt. My life isn't that depressing," Rachel responds. "But he left earlier."

"So you got bored and called me of all people?"

She hears an angry sigh. "You know what, you're right. I'll just hang up and—"

"I'm kidding," Quinn says quickly to stop her. "It's a joke."

"Oh."

"And I didn't think you liked me very much. Or at all, really."

It's silent for a moment. Quinn thinks maybe Rachel passed out until she hears a quiet, "I like you a lot, actually."

She smiles. "Yeah?"

"Like I said, you're not so bad."

Quinn laughs. "Thanks I guess." She lets out another yawn.

"Long night?"

She nods even though Rachel can't see it. "I took Brittany out with me on tonight's assignment. I think she had fun."

"She doesn't seem like the private investigating type."

"She's actually a dancer. And she's just doing this with me until she can find some work."

"That actually makes sense."

Quinn smiles again. "So anyway…"

"I'm breaking up with Blaine," Rachel blurts. "Well, not actually breaking up, but you know what I mean."

"Considering you're both gay, I think I get it." She hears Rachel laugh with her. "Is there a reason for that?"

"I don't know. I just—" Rachel pauses, "I just don't want to be defined by who I'm dating, you know?"

"Yeah," Quinn says. "People are going to see how talented you are, and that's what matters."

"You think so?"

"Definitely. And I know you're talented. I've been watching some of your shows and movies."

"You have?" Rachel asks in surprise.

Quinn instantly turns beet red. Why did she have to say that? "Yeah," she stutters. "I figured I could use as much background info on the case as I can get."

"Oh. Well, thank you—for saying I'm talented."

"You're a natural," Quinn says quietly. She really doesn't understand why Rachel hasn't gotten bigger roles by now. That needs to change.

"Are you still there?" Rachel asks after a minute.

"I'm still here," Quinn answers.

"Entertain me," she hears Rachel whine. "That's the whole reason I called you in the first place."

Quinn smiles. "Okay. Um…" She stops to think. "Truth or dare?"

"Seriously?"

She shrugs. "Yeah, why not?"

"Fine. Truth."

"Hmm," Quinn ponders out loud. "What's your favorite holiday?"

"Christmas. What's yours?"

"Thanksgiving. I love pie."

Rachel laughs. "Truth or dare?"

Quinn frowns. "Technically you already had your turn by asking me a question."

"Truth or dare, Quinn!"

"Truth," she answers quickly.

"Did you grow up in Los Angeles?"

She shakes her head. "No. Brittany and I are actually from Ohio. We moved here after our high school graduation."

"Why LA?"

She shrugs again. "Brittany wanted to come here to start her dancing career. I just went with her. I honestly just wanted to get out of that small town, so I was happy to go anywhere."

"Is your family still there?"

"Yeah, but we don't talk much. After I came out, my dad acted like I didn't exist."

"That's terrible," Rachel says sympathetically.

"My mom still calls me once in a while to check in. But it's whatever. I'm doing just fine without them. I don't plan on going back there." She hears Rachel hum. "My turn, truth or dare?"

"I'll take my chances and go with dare this time."

Quinn smirks. "Hmm, what can I get Rachel Berry to do in the middle of the night?"

"Keep it tame, Fabray. I don't want to see myself on TMZ tomorrow."

"Fine," Quinn says. "I dare you to send me the last picture taken on your phone."

She hears Rachel grumble for a moment. "Hang on."

Quinn's phone vibrates with a new message and she opens it. She laughs loudly when she sees an annoyed-looking Rachel sitting at a table and shoving a forkful of eggs into her mouth while glaring at the camera.

"Kurt caught me off guard this morning," Rachel says.

"It's beautiful," Quinn says with a snicker.

"Shut up."

"Okay, sorry. I promise I'll delete it." She deletes it right then and there.

"Good. Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Really? After I just did a dare?"

Quinn doesn't waver. "Truth," she repeats.

"You're no fun. But fine. Tell me about the last date you went on."

Quinn sighs. "Wow, okay. It was a couple of months ago. Brittany set me up with one of her dancer friends. She was nice, and really pretty, so I took her to that Eat restaurant."

"Nice."

"And it went alright."

"There hasn't been a second date?"

"God no. All she talked about was how flexible she could be. And she didn't even know what an encyclopedia was."

Rachel laughs. "So you realized she wasn't all that bright and called it a night?"

"Not exactly. I still went home with her."

"What? Quinn!"

"Hey, I said she was really pretty! And she wasn't lying about her flexibility."

"Stop talking," Rachel snaps. Quinn smiles and wonders if the brunette is jealous.

"If it makes you feel any better, I told Brittany never to set me up with one of her friends again."

"I'm sure all of the local flexible dancers were disappointed," Rachel says.

Quinn chuckles. "Truth or dare?"

"Truth."

"Do you believe in fate?"

It's quiet as she waits for Rachel to answer. She briefly wonders if maybe she made things awkward.

"Yes," Rachel finally says. "I do."

Quinn smiles.

"Truth or dare?" Rachel asks.

"Truth."

"Do you?"

"I'm starting to," she says softly. She really does believe that life brought her to Rachel in its own twisted way. And the scary part is that Quinn was actually glad that everything happened. "Truth or dare?" she asks.

"Dare," Rachel answers boldly.

Things were starting to feel a little intense, so she decides to lighten it up a little. "What's your favorite monologue?"

"Hmm," Rachel thinks about it. "Probably that Vivien Leigh scene in _Gone With the Wind_."

"Okay," Quinn says with a laugh. "I dare you to reenact that scene with the most ridiculous Russian accent you can come up with."

"Oh God," Rachel says as she takes a deep breath. "I'm going to have to prepare myself for this…"

* * *

In the middle of a pitch black room, a laptop sits with a video of Rachel playing on the screen. It's not a previous recording, but a live feed of her in her living room at this very moment.

Someone watches it intently, carefully studying everything she does. They watch as she rolls around on the couch while talking on the phone as if she's a twelve-year-old girl talking to their crush.

 _Fucking pathetic._

They can't make out what Rachel is saying because the camera and microphone is a good distance away from her this time. Everything she's saying is muffled.

"Stupid bitch," they mutter bitterly out loud.

The smile on Rachel's face is enough to give away who she's talking to. Someone they've been keeping an eye on for a while now. Someone that can derail everything. Someone that needs to be taken care of.

Quinn Fabray.

* * *

 **A/N:** Be sure to let me know what you think :)

Since a few of you have asked, I just want to confirm that this story does not have G!P. I'm sorry if any of you are disappointed, but I hope you'll still like the rest of the story.


	5. Chapter 5

**Title:** Right Behind You

 **Rating:** M for later chapters

 **Summary:** Rachel Berry is trying to make a name for herself as an actress in Hollywood, but someone is trying to ruin her life and make sure that doesn't happen. A private investigator named Quinn Fabray somehow becomes involved in the whole thing and gets more than she bargained for. But will she be able to help Rachel?

 **Warnings:** None for this chapter.

 **A/N:** Hello! I hope that you all enjoy reading this story as much as I love writing it :)

And to answer someone's question, I didn't make any changes to the last chapter and I'm not sure why the email notification was sent out so late. This site can just be weird sometimes.

* * *

Rachel arrives five minutes early for her meeting with Sue Sylvester at the woman's office. Will and Kurt flock by her side as she makes her way up to Sue's assistant, Becky.

"Ms. Sylvester is with someone right now," Becky says from her desk before Rachel can even say hi. "She should be done soon."

"Thank you, Becky," Will says to her. The three of them then take a seat on the nearby waiting chairs.

"Berry is here for you," Becky says into her head set. She waits for a response and says, "Copy that."

"I hope this doesn't take two hours like last time," Rachel complains out loud.

"Rachel," Will warns, afraid that Sue will hear her.

They can hear muffled shouting coming from Sue's office. This was a regular occurrence as she was one of the most notoriously difficult agents to work with in Hollywood. But she was also one of the best, and if you could get past the personality, then she could take your career incredibly far.

"Since I don't technically need to be here for this, I'm going to run out to get some coffee." Kurt gets up and slings his messenger bag over his shoulder. "You guys want the usual?"

"Yes please," Rachel says. She knows what he's really trying to do, but she doesn't blame him for doing whatever it takes to avoid the plague known as Sue Sylvester.

"I'm good," Will answers.

Soon after Kurt leaves, Rachel's phone goes off with a new message. She picks it up and instantly smiles.

 **Quinn: I hope you're not too hung over today. Also, I'm sorry that I kept you up all night.**

"What is it?" Will asks as he leans over to look at the screen.

"Nothing," she says quickly and shoves the phone back into her bag. "Just Kurt making a joke."

He stares at her for a moment, as if he knows she's keeping something from him. But he doesn't say anything… for now.

Rachel sighs. She knows he's going to flip once he finds out that her and Quinn are becoming more and more friendly. But she'll deal with that later.

When he busies himself on his own phone, she thinks back to Quinn's message and reminds herself to reply when she gets a chance. And it wasn't that Quinn kept her up all night, more like the other way around. She remembers feeling relieved that the blonde didn't hang up on her right away. She wasn't expecting a conversation that lasted hours.

Luckily for her, she didn't have enough to drink to make a complete fool of herself, just enough to be bolder than usual. She hopes that paid off.

She jumps in her seat when Sue's door is thrown open. "Get the hell out of my office!" the woman yells as a crying young girl and her manager rush out together.

"Berry! Schuester! You're up!"

Rachel and Will hurry into the office where they see Sue sitting at her desk with her back to them. She swivels around in her chair and says, "Close the door."

Will shuts it and scurries over to the chair next to Rachel. "Everything okay?" he asks, referring to her previous meeting.

"You'd be shocked at how many girls are genuinely surprised to learn that Disney no longer wants to work with them once explicit photos of themselves are exposed all over the internet." Sue jerks her head towards the door. "And this one just learned the hard way."

Rachel's eyes widen as she looks at the door and back. The hard truth about this career was that it could be over at any moment. And if she wasn't careful…

"I'm already tired of looking at you both, so I'm going to cut to the chase," Sue says. She looks directly at Rachel. "It seems that my friends at Warner Brothers were quite impressed with your audition yesterday."

"Really?" Rachel says with a beaming smile.

"I know. I was just as surprised as you are now," Sue drawls out. "But you made the shortlist of actresses considered for the part, so you're up for another audition."

"That's great!" Will says. Rachel nods in agreement with her own smile.

"Shut up," Sue tells him. "Now, you know what landing this part could mean for you, right? I can't say the director yet, because they want to wait to announce it, but it's someone with a track record of award-worthy films."

Rachel slows her breathing. This could be the part of a lifetime.

"This is the part of a lifetime," Sue adds. "And if you nail this, I'm thinking a Golden Globe nomination is in the bag for sure. Maybe even an Oscar nod."

She leans forward. "You think so?"

Sue nods. "And that's why I'm telling you you'd better not make me look bad and screw this next audition up. You don't know how much ass I had to kiss to get you the first one." Sue frowns at herself. "Actually, I didn't. But you still better bring your A-game, Berry. I have a reputation to maintain."

"I will. I swear, this will be the best audition I've ever done."

"We'll see," Sue replies. "Since you're not working on anything at the moment, I want this to be your only focus from now on. Schuester, make sure she's on top of this."

"Got it."

Rachel huffs. She's tired of Will criticizing her every move. And now it's only going to get worse with this next audition.

"The audition is on the 20th at two o'clock. Put it in your calendar or Blackberry or whatever you use."

"I will."

Sue gives an approving nod. "Good. Also, some of your extracurricular activities have come to my attention."

Rachel's face heats up. She knows exactly what her agent is talking about.

"That's been taken care of," Will assures.

"For now. But I highly recommend that you hire an actual publicist in the event of another mess like that one."

She rolls her eyes. "Kurt's been doing just fine with public relations."

"I don't really care, I'm just required to give you advice," Sue says. "Don't forget, the 20th."

"I won't forget," Rachel answers.

"Good. Now get out of my office."

Rachel and Will leave to the front of the building where they wait for Kurt. Rachel gives him a call.

"I'm just around the corner," he says over the phone. "I'll be there soon."

"Okay." She hangs up and turns to Will. "He's on his way."

Will nods and looks at his smartphone. "I think that's your last meeting for this week."

"Thank God," Rachel says out loud. She's been feeling a bit overworked lately and just needs some time to herself.

"Any plans at all?" Will asks. She doesn't miss the inquiring tone in his voice.

"None other than preparing for this audition," she answers, hoping it'll please him.

"Good," he says. "We'll get started today, then." She resists the urge to stomp her foot. "Has Fabray made any progress?" he asks.

She feels her stomach flip at the mention of Quinn. "Not that I know of," she says.

Will nods. "I'll give her a call later to check up."

Rachel purses her lips. The last thing she wants is for her manager to be bothering Quinn, especially when he already doesn't like her. "I'll talk to her," she says. "I think I'll be able to get more out of her than you can."

"Why do you say that?" he asks right away.

She pauses. "I just think that she'll respond better to me."

He sighs loudly. "Fine. Just keep me up to date, okay?"

"You don't have to worry," she says. "I'll take care of this."

"I don't want her to be a problem," he says. "Are you sure you can handle her?"

"I can handle Quinn Fabray," she says. "Trust me."

A short honk interrupts them when Kurt pulls the car to the front of the building. Rachel lets Will get in the front so she can have some privacy in the back, namely pulling her phone out without him watching her like a hawk. She silently fumes when she thinks about the fact that she's stuck with him for the rest of the day.

"You made the shortlist?" Kurt squeaks from the front.

Rachel snaps out of her thoughts. She'd completely tuned them out. Will must've been filling him in. "Yes," she says with a smile. "I have another audition in a couple weeks."

"That's amazing!" he exclaims.

"Yes, we're all excited," Will says, then turns serious and starts going over with Kurt the agenda for the next few weeks.

Rachel tunes them out again and takes her phone out, opening Quinn's earlier message.

 **Rachel: I'm feeling great, actually. Thank you for keeping me company.**

* * *

Quinn steps out of her car and frowns at the smell of oil and burning rubber. She's at a tire shop on the far west side of town. She has no idea how long this is going to take, not particularly thrilled to be here, but she squares her shoulders and heads to the entrance.

"Can I help you?" When she walks in, one of the workers greets her. A bulky, tattooed Hispanic man with a thick accent. He does a double-take when he looks up at her and she suppresses a grimace.

She plasters on a smile instead. "I'm looking for Finn Hudson."

"Finn? He's working on a car right now. But he should be done soon if you want to wait here."

The guy's leering is unsettling. Quinn politely shakes her head. "I'll wait outside, thank you."

She steps back outside and puts her sunglasses on. She decides to get a look at Finn Hudson and peers around the corner into the large open garage. She sees the man that greeted her approach another man that was underneath a car working on something. The man rolls out from underneath and stands.

The first thing Quinn notices is how tall he is. She also doesn't miss the grease marks all over his coveralls and face. He furrows his brow and wipes his hands off with a rag as he listens to the other man speak. The first man then points at Quinn and Finn turns, still confused.

She flashes another welcoming smile, and it seems to have the same effect on Finn as it did the first man. His confused expression is replaced with a goofy grin as he quickly jogs over to her, nearly tripping over his own feet in the process.

"Hi," he says when he reaches her. "They said you were looking for me?"

Quinn nods. "Finn Hudson?"

"Yeah?"

She holds her hand out for him to shake. He takes it. "My name is Quinn Fabray. I work for Rachel Berry."

His confusion returns. "Rachel? What's this about? Is she okay?"

"Rachel is fine," Quinn assures. "I just have a few questions for you regarding some incidents with her. You're under no obligation to speak with me if you don't feel comfortable doing so."

Finn opens his mouth, but she cuts him off before he can speak. "But if you choose to cooperate, you'll be helping Rachel and myself a great deal."

He's quiet as he weighs his options. "Am I in trouble or something? Are you a cop?"

"No," she answers shortly. She takes her sunglasses off and look up at him with her bedroom eyes. "I'd really appreciate it if you took the time to speak with me."

He swallows and takes the bait. "Okay."

She beams. "Great! Is there somewhere private we can talk?"

Finn glances at the building and says, "I think the office is taken right now. But my truck's right over there," he points.

"Lead the way."

She frowns in distaste when they approach the old, beat-up truck. There's no way in hell she's getting in that thing with him, so she's thankful when Finn pulls down the tail gate and sits on it. Quinn hops up to sit beside him. She pulls her notepad out of her bag.

"So this is about Rachel?" he asks.

She nods. "Yes. I'm investigating some incidents that have occurred recently. I just have some questions for you. You don't have to answer any that you feel are too personal." He shrugs, giving her the go-ahead. "When did you first meet Rachel?"

"In high school," he says. "We dated for three years."

"Were you involved in any extra-curricular school activities together?"

"Yeah. We were co-captains of the Glee club."

Quinn already knows all of this. She's just trying to warm him up before she goes in for the tougher questions. "Did you enjoy that?"

"I liked it as much as I liked football." Finn smiles. "It was the best time of my life."

"Can you tell me what Rachel was like back then?" She asks it mostly because she's genuinely curious herself.

Finn takes a moment to think about it, or rather think about how he's going to say it. "Loud," he blurts. "At least that's how she seemed at first, but you got used to it after a while."

Quinn nods in understanding.

"She was really aggressive in Glee," he says. "Her and Mercedes Jones were always fighting over solos." He looks up at Quinn. "But once you got to _really_ know Rachel, you saw how awesome she really was. Maybe she showed it in a weird way, but she cared about everyone in Glee and was kind of like the glue that held us together. Whenever someone tried to quit, she would somehow convince them to stay."

He looks down at his hands. "I didn't want to go to college because I'm not really qualified to do anything except," he gestures to the tire shop. "She kept telling me that I was too good for this and that I could do anything if I really tried. I know she was disappointed in me."

"Is that why she broke up with you?" Quinn asks, testing the waters.

He sighs. "She's becoming famous now. We both knew she would be one day. I was never going to match that." He turns to Quinn. "And besides, last time we talked, she finally told me she…" he trails off.

"Likes girls? I know," Quinn says.

Finn nods. "I don't know why she didn't tell me back in high school. It would've saved me a lot of trouble."

"She was probably just coming to terms with it," Quinn offers.

"But still. It's messed up."

Quinn can't judge because she doesn't personally know all of the circumstances surrounding their relationship. "She still cared about you," she says, because she knows that much is true.

Finn looks away. "I doubt that. But I still kept her secret."

"So when was the last time you talked?" Quinn asks.

"About a month after she moved back to town," he says.

"And you haven't spoken since?"

He shakes his head. "I thought that maybe since she was back for good, and I'm still here, we could give it another shot. I even told her I would start taking classes at community college."

"But that's when she told you?"

He nods. Quinn sees anger suddenly building behind his eyes. After her time spent as a cop, she was no stranger to that look. She slowly begins inching herself away from him. She glances up to make sure she was still within view of the other garage workers.

"I lost my cool and we got into an argument and started yelling at each other. I said some things I didn't really mean. She told me to never talk to her again. It was pretty bad." He clears his throat and looks down as he kicks one of his legs out.

"And you haven't had contact with her since?"

"I tried calling her, but I guess she changed her number." He chuckles humorlessly. "You know, she always told me that I was smarter than everyone said, but no one has ever made me feel that dumb before."

She writes that down in her notes. He's definitely going on the list of people to keep an eye on, but she doesn't say anything about that.

"What are you investigating?" he asks.

"That's confidential," she replies.

"You said there's been incidents. Did someone try to hurt her?"

"No," Quinn answers. Maybe just her career, but Rachel hasn't been physically hurt so she's technically telling the truth. "Finn, did you ever go to New York to see Rachel while she was there?"

"Yeah," he says.

"Did you ever go to see her show?"

"Yeah, once. I heard that it was her first real show. I wanted to be there."

"How long were you there for?"

"A few days I think. Artie and Tina made the flight up, too. And Kurt was already there. We all went to dinner one night. It was like a little reunion."

"For the night of the show, were you with Artie and Tina the whole night?"

"I don't know. Maybe. Why?"

"I'm just wondering."

He narrows his eyes at her. She knows he's wondering what her angle is. He still looks suspicious about everything.

Quinn shifts uncomfortably. It was rare that she could see someone go from clueless to intimidating in a matter of seconds. Those were the kind of people you had to watch out for.

They hear a whistle and someone yell out, "Hudson!"

Finn hops off the truck and says, "I gotta go back to work now."

Quinn jumps down and smiles at him. "Thank you for your time. I'll contact you if I need to speak with you again."

"Don't you need my number or something?"

She shakes her head. "I know where to find you."

As she walks away, she feels his eyes still staring at her from behind. She puts her sunglasses back on and quickens her pace. A big part of her career has always been about reading people, and something about Finn Hudson just doesn't feel right to her.

* * *

When she enters her apartment, she finds Brittany sitting on the couch watching TV. "Hey," she says. "How did it go?"

She had Brittany go and speak with Sandy Ryerson today because she wanted to take on Finn herself. She was planning on talking to Sandy soon, but she reasoned she could send Brittany to at least scope the guy out first.

Brittany gets up excitedly. "It went great, Quinn! You won't believe what happened!"

Quinn looks at her skeptically. "What happened?"

"So, his address was in East LA."

"Oh, Jesus…"

"And he was super nice. When I rang the doorbell, he invited me in for tea."

"Brittany—"

"Don't worry. I had my stun gun," Brittany assures her. Quinn only feels slightly better. "But anyway, we talked for a while. And then he sold me some weed."

"What!" she shrieks.

Brittany nods. "He grows it and makes a lot of money from it. He has this little business."

Quinn runs a hand over her face. "Oh my God…"

"It gets better." Brittany pries Quinn's hand from her face. "He had a meth lab in his basement, so he sold me some of that stuff too!"

"Are you fucking—"

"And some little sample baggies of cocaine, Ecstasy, and something called Angel Dust? Have you heard of it?"

"Brittany!" Quinn squawks. "Please tell me you didn't take any of that stuff? Give me all of it right now!"

"Relax," Brittany pats her shoulder. "I called Santana when I got back here. She came by and I gave her all the drugs and told her everything. I think they're raiding his house right now."

Quinn stares at her with her mouth hanging wide open. Brittany pushes her chin up to close it. "Aren't you proud of me? I busted my first drug ring today!" she says gleefully.

"Um…" Quinn doesn't know what to say. "Good job, Britt." She's going to have to have a more serious talk with Brittany later when she gathers her thoughts. "So Sandy Ryerson is in jail now," she says, mostly to herself.

"Oh! And I found out he's not involved in this whole thing with Rachel, so you don't have to worry about him."

Quinn frowns. "Why do you say that?"

"When he was selling me the weed, he said that being fired from his teaching job was the best thing that ever happened to him. He said that he found his true calling and has been the happiest he's ever been."

"Are you sure he wasn't just saying that because you were asking about what happened with Rachel?"

"Mhmm!" Brittany nods. "I didn't even mention Rachel. I told him I was doing a survey for the city."

Quinn sighs. At least the guy's in jail.

Her phone starts ringing and she picks it up to see Santana Lopez calling. She shakes her head and rejects the call.

"I think Santana wants to have a word with me," she says.

Soon after, a flood of text messages come in.

 **Lopez: FABRAY.**

 **Lopez: You sent my girlfriend to an active meth lab ALONE?**

 **Lopez: I will kill you!**

 **Lopez: I will fucking murder you when I see you!**

 **Lopez: I will make it look like an accident!**

 **Lopez: And I will make these messages disappear!**

The messages continue to come in, but Quinn puts her phone face down on the desk.

"Don't worry," Brittany says. "I didn't have a lot of time to talk to her earlier before she went back to the station. But I'll make sure she knows it wasn't your fault."

"If I go missing, you'll know why."

Brittany rolls her eyes. "I'll talk to her."

Quinn's phone starts ringing with another call. "Please do. I think she's on her way over here now to kill me."

Brittany huffs and snatches the phone off the desk and pushes the button to answer. "Leave Quinn alone, Santana," she says into the speaker. "And stop saying you're going to murder her or no sweet lady kisses for a week." She hangs the phone up and hands it back to Quinn.

"Um, thanks," Quinn says. She sighs and sits down at the desk.

"So, how did it go with Finn Hudson?" Brittany asks as she sits across from her.

"He's definitely a suspect," Quinn says. "I get a vibe from him… It's not a good one."

"You and your vibes," Brittany remarks. "Didn't he date Rachel? Like when they were in high school?"

Quinn nods. "For three years, he said."

"You probably just don't like him because you're jealous."

She scoffs. "Brittany, no."

"Oh please, Quinn. I know you."

"I don't know what you're talking about." Quinn gets up to go to her room.

"Just ask her out already."

Quinn shuts the door and lies down on the bed. She stares up at the ceiling as she mulls everything from the day over. Maybe Brittany was kind of right in her thoughts on Finn Hudson being a bit personal, but that doesn't change the fact that he was highly suspicious. She's going to have to keep a close eye on him.

Her phone vibrates next to her. She picks it up, expecting it to be another threatening message from Santana, but quickly sits up when she sees it's from someone else.

 **Rachel: Quinn?**

She chastises herself when she remembers the message Rachel sent her earlier that she was too busy to reply to.

 **Quinn: I'm so sorry for the late reply. I've been busy all day.**

 **Rachel: It's quite alright. Any news?**

Quinn contemplates sending everything she found out through a message. But she decides to call her instead.

Rachel picks up on the second ring. "Hello?"

"It's Quinn."

"I know." Rachel chuckles. "What's going on?"

"Just thought I'd give you an update."

"Oh?"

"Nothing too major, but I went to see Finn today."

She hears Rachel slowly intake a breath. "Okay. How did that go?"

"It seems like he's still bitter about your last interaction." Well, that's one way to put it.

"That's not surprising," Rachel says.

"I know you don't like it, but I need to keep looking into him. He fits the bill for our suspect."

"Okay…" Rachel pauses. "I just really hope it's not him."

"Well," Quinn decides to change the subject. "I have some good news. We can probably rule out Sandy Ryerson."

"Really?"

"Yeah… Brittany may have gotten him sent to prison for a while."

"She—" Rachel sputters out several kinds of noises. "What?"

"She went to his house and saw that he was dealing weed and all kinds of other drugs."

"Oh my God. That's—actually, I can see him doing that."

Quinn laughs. A loud banging can suddenly be heard at the front door followed by muffled Spanish. She sighs, knowing it's Santana. "I have to go. But I'll talk to you later."

"Right. Bye, Quinn."

"Bye, Rachel."

* * *

Rachel wraps her arms around herself as she paces the living room. She's been home for a few hours now, but she's had an unsettling feeling in her stomach that she can't explain. It's like someone is breathing down her back, even though she's completely alone.

This isn't the first time she's had this feeling. She's had it several times since she's been living on her own all these years. She thinks she's too old to be calling her parents to comfort her. But she can't shake this feeling. She has a sixth sense, and she knows something isn't right.

She thinks that maybe talking to one of the few people that actually can comfort her will help. She sends a message to Quinn.

 **Rachel: Do you ever have the feeling that you're being watched?**

She doesn't have to wait long for a reply.

 **Quinn: I used to get that feeling a lot when I was a cop. Is everything okay?**

Rachel sighs and looks around the living room. Her phone buzzes again.

 **Quinn: Do you want me to come over?**

She briefly contemplates it, but then shakes her head. She's just scared and lonely, she tells herself. And having Quinn around when she's feeling lonely isn't the best idea. Rachel doesn't trust her self control around the blonde these days. She doesn't want to ruin their relationship.

So she'll turn Quinn down… this time. She'll give Kurt a call and have him come over instead. That's probably the best option.

 **Rachel: No, it's okay. You don't need to worry. I'm just being paranoid. This happens when I get too stressed.**

Rachel may not know it, but she's not just being paranoid.

* * *

 **A/N:** Thanks for reading! I love seeing all of your theories ;)


	6. Chapter 6

**Title:** Right Behind You

 **Rating:** M for later chapters

 **Summary:** Rachel Berry is trying to make a name for herself as an actress in Hollywood, but someone is trying to ruin her life and make sure that doesn't happen. A private investigator named Quinn Fabray somehow becomes involved in the whole thing and gets more than she bargained for. But will she be able to help Rachel?

 **Warnings:** None for this chapter.

* * *

Rachel yawns as she flips over one of the pages of the script. She's been up since six in the morning reading over lines, and she needs to make sure she has the part she's after memorized perfectly. Kurt and Will were supposed to be here at ten to run lines with her, and it's now almost half past. She's becoming impatient, but they should be here any minute now.

There's a knock at the door. She drops the script down on the couch and goes to answer it, expecting to see Kurt, but instantly deflating when she opens the door to just see Will.

"Where's Kurt?" he asks as he walks past her. "I didn't see his car out front."

She shuts the door. "I don't know. I'll call him." She goes to back to the living room to grab her phone.

"Do you mind if I use your bathroom?" Will calls out.

"No. Go ahead," she says back as she brings the phone up to her ear.

"Hey," Kurt answers. "I know, I'm running late. But I'll be there soon."

Rachel hears a whole crowd of other voices in the background. "Where are you?"

"I'm still at Starbucks."

"Still?"

"Yeah. The line is ridiculous. But I ordered the usual for you."

She smiles. "Thanks, Kurt."

"By the way, Sam Evans called again and—"

"No," Rachel snaps.

Kurt laughs. "Okay then. I'll make sure he gets the message." Rachel hears him thank a barista. "Okay, I'm on my way over now. Are you excited to run lines all day? Because I can't wait," he says sarcastically.

"Not really," she says with a sigh. "I know I need to prepare for my audition," she glances around and lowers her voice, "but with Will on my back about this whole thing, I'd rather be doing literally anything else today."

"Like Quinn?"

She blushes. "Shut up."

"Never. You still haven't heard from her?"

"No," she says, annoyed. It's been three days since she last spoke with the blonde. Rachel doesn't want to keep calling her when she knows Quinn is incredibly busy.

"Just call her," Kurt says, reading her mind.

"She has a life, Kurt. And she probably has a million things to do."

"I'm sure she's more than willing to make time for you. Just talk to her or I'll do it myself. We could probably have some interesting conversations."

"No!" Rachel hisses. "Fine, I'll call her later. Just hurry up and get here."

Kurt chuckles. "See you in ten."

She hangs the phone up with a huff.

"Call who?"

Rachel screams and turns around with a hand over her chest to Will standing on the other side of the room. She didn't even hear him approaching. "You scared me!" she says, trying to bring her heart rate back down as she evens out her breathing.

"Sorry," he says, even though he looks like he's not. He crosses his arms.

"And I have to call Quinn Fabray later," she says. "So I can find out if she has any updates," she quickly adds.

"Is that the only reason?"

Rachel nods, hoping he doesn't see right through her. "Why else would I have to talk to her?"

"You tell me."

She clears her throat and turns to pick up the script. "Do you want to get started now, or wait for Kurt?"

"Actually, I forgot that I need to make a call to Sue."

"Oh."

"I'll just step outside for a minute."

Rachel watches him leave, feeling nervous. She thinks she knows him well enough by now to know when he's lying. And vice versa.

Will closes the front door and pulls his phone out. He scowls as he brings it up to his ear.

* * *

Just as Quinn is putting her car in park, her phone begins ringing in her bag. She picks it up to see an unknown number and frowns. "Quinn Fabray," she answers.

"This is Will Schuester." His voice is stern.

She lifts an eyebrow. This can't be good. "What can I do for you?"

"It's come to my attention that your relationship with Ms. Berry is extending beyond what's deemed professional."

"I don't know what you're—"

He cuts her off. "Save it."

Quinn scoffs. _What a rude asshole._

"Why she chose to hire you is beyond me. And if it were up to me, you would probably be in jail right now."

"Well, it's not up to you," she bites back.

"No, it's not. But I am still Rachel's manager, and I have to decide what's in the best interest of her career, that includes keeping any distractions away."

"Are you saying I'm a distraction?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying. Don't think I haven't noticed that you're trying to get closer to her. I'm not going to let her be manipulated by you. I've been fending off people like you for a while now, Ms. Fabray."

Quinn rolls her eyes. She hates when people call her that. "Are we done here?"

"No. From now on, you're going to report directly to me, not Rachel. Do you understand me?"

"Fine." Quinn hangs up the phone without another word. Like hell she's reporting directly to him!

And as for Rachel… she'll figure all of that out later. Right now, she has a job to do. She takes a deep breath, puts her game face on, and gets out of the car.

She's currently at a prestigious-looking realtors' office in West Hollywood. She's too pissed off to even be impressed by the place right now. She walks right into the building and approaches the receptionist.

"Hello, I'm here to see Kitty Wilde. Can you tell me where her office is?"

The young girl looks at her and frowns. "Her office is over there. But I apologize, Ms. Wilde is about to leave for the day. So you can come back on Monday."

"I'm sorry, but this is really important." Quinn marches to the office. "She'll understand," she calls out over her shoulder.

She gets to Kitty's office and knocks on the door, not bothering to wait for a reply before she opens it and steps inside. She finds a blonde woman about her age, with a nice pencil skirt and matching blazer, and hair neatly pulled up. Kitty looks at her in confusion. Quinn sees that she's packing a brief case, about to leave.

"Can I help you?"

"My name is Quinn, and I was hoping you could take the time to talk with me?" Quinn says as she approaches the desk.

Kitty doesn't hide her annoyance and continues putting her things away. "If you're house hunting, now isn't the best time. I'm actually leaving for the day."

"Why so early?"

"Doctor's appointment," Kitty answers. "If you'd like to schedule a meeting—"

"This will only take a few minutes," Quinn says. She's lost patience with everything today and she won't take no for an answer.

Kitty looks at her watch and back at Quinn with a raised eyebrow. "Make it quick."

"I just have a few questions that I need to ask you about Rachel Berry."

Kitty stiffens. "Who exactly did you say you were?"

"I'm a private investigator," Quinn answers. She watches as Kitty glances down at the laptop screen on the desk and uses a shaking hand to navigate the mouse to do something on it and then turn the whole thing off. She's trying to hide something, and Quinn can't see what she's doing because it's facing away from her.

Kitty shuts it. "Look, everything that happened between me and Rachel is in the past. I was just a stupid kid in high school. And she got her revenge by getting me expelled, by the way. So I don't know why she just can't let it go."

Quinn nods and walks towards the window. She looks outside. "So you were expelled because of her?"

She looks back at Kitty, who narrows her eyes. "Are you really who you say you are?" she asks angrily. "Or are you just with the press trying to dig up a story on Rachel? Because I'm telling you right now, I'm not going to be a part of this."

Quinn rolls her eyes. "I'm not with the press."

"I'm leaving now." Kitty grabs her purse. "See yourself out."

She stomps out of the office, leaving Quinn by herself. Quinn notices the briefcase still sitting on the desk and smiles. She looks around and notices several people passing by the office. She looks back at the briefcase. She can't do this here, and she can't take it with her either.

She turns back to the window and flips the latch on it, leaving it unlocked.

* * *

Her call goes straight to voicemail again. Quinn groans. "Brittany, this is like the fifth message I've left you. I kind of need you for something, so call me back. Or just come home soon. Bye." She runs a hand through her hair in frustration.

She needs to go back to Kitty's office now that everyone is gone so she can see what's on that damn laptop. And she needs Brittany as a lookout, just to be safe. But her roommate is nowhere to be found and Quinn's frustration is only getting worse.

She swallows her pride and calls another number.

"What?" Santana barks on the other end.

"Is Brittany with you? I can't get ahold of her."

"Yeah, she's here. She said her phone died."

"Can you put her on? I need to talk—"

The line goes dead. "Fuck you, Santana," she grumbles as she tosses the phone onto the couch. She sits down and thinks about what she's going to do. She could just go by herself, but that's far too risky. It also looks like she has no other choice.

 _Fucking Santana…_

She whirls her head around to the door when she hears knocking. She gets up. "Who is it?"

"It's Rachel."

Quinn rushes over to the door. She remembers that she missed a call from Rachel earlier, but she'd been so busy throughout the day that she didn't have time to call her back. She feels like an idiot now.

"Hey," she says when she opens the door. She tries to hold back thoughts of how good Rachel looks in the dark sweater she's wearing, but she can't help appreciating the aesthetic.

Rachel blushes when Quinn's eyes linger on her chest. "I tried calling you earlier."

"I know. Sorry, I've just been swamped today." Quinn steps aside. "You can come in."

Rachel walks in. "I haven't heard from you. I'm just making sure everything is okay."

Quinn sighs. "Like I said, I'm just busy."

"Are you avoiding me?" Rachel wants to get right to the point.

"No, I'm not."

"If I've been making you uncomfortable, then—"

"Rachel, stop," Quinn says with a laugh. "I'm not avoiding you." She thinks back to Will's phone call and thinks she might as well be honest. "You should probably know that your manager called me earlier."

"Will?" She fucking knew it. "What did he say?"

"That I'm just a distraction and I need to leave you alone. And also that I report directly to him from now on."

"Don't listen to him," Rachel says with a wave of her hand. "He's a bigger drama queen than I am."

Quinn smiles. "I wasn't planning on listening to him anyway."

Rachel smiles back for a moment. She looks away and clears her throat.

Quinn turns to check her phone, cursing when there's still no new notifications.

"What's wrong?" Rachel asks.

"I need Brittany for something and she's not answering her phone," Quinn says with a shake of her head.

"What do you need her for?"

"It's something for a case." She looks back up at Rachel. "Your case. It's for Kitty Wilde."

Rachel shudders at the name. "I haven't seen her since high school."

"Yeah, well she wasn't too happy when I showed up. I need to go back to get more information, but I'd rather have Brittany with me."

"I'll go with you," Rachel finds herself saying.

"Rachel, no. This is my job."

"And this is _my_ case. I want to help."

Quinn smiles in amusement. "You don't understand. I don't tell you the things I do exactly because they're not always ethical. And what I'm planning on doing is illegal. I can't let you get involved."

"I'm in," Rachel says. "I trust that you won't let me get arrested."

"You trust me a little too much," Quinn answers nervously.

"Quinn, just let me help."

Quinn sighs. Why can't she ever say no to this woman? "Okay."

* * *

Quinn smiles when she nudges the window to discover that it's still unlocked. She pushes it up all the way, waiting to see if an alarm goes off. Nothing happens.

"Are you sure there's no cameras?" Rachel whispers behind her, looking back constantly to make sure nobody sees them.

"There's only two and they're at the main entrance. I checked earlier." Quinn climbs inside the window, one leg at a time. She then lifts a hand for Rachel to hold as she helps her inside. She closes the window once they're both in, swallowing because Rachel still has a grip on her hand.

"How long is this going to take?" Rachel asks.

"Five minutes, give or take." Quinn speaks at her normal volume this time. She reluctantly lets go of Rachel and pulls a USB drive out of her pocket. "I need you to stand by the door and keep watch, okay?"

Rachel nods. "Got it." She opens the door and stands there, keeping an eye on the entrance of the building.

"Make sure you're not in view of the cameras," Quinn says as she opens the briefcase on the desk. She opens the laptop and powers it up, drumming her fingers against the desk surface as she waits. "Is the coast still clear?" she asks.

Rachel looks at her. "I think I would've mentioned if it wasn't."

Quinn smiles. "Just testing you." When the laptop reaches the prompt to type in a password, Quinn plugs the USB in. It bypasses the screen and goes right to the desktop.

She smirks. The code on this drive was just another thing she kept from the force. She opens the drive's file and types in a few commands, and it's soon copying everything from the computer.

"Perfect," she says.

"Did you find something?" Rachel asks.

"Not yet. We need to get out of here first. I'll look through all the files when I get home."

Rachel nods and turns back to where she was looking. Her breath hitches when she sees headlights. "Quinn! Someone just pulled up!"

"Shit!" Quinn looks down to see that the files are less than thirty percent loaded. "Close the door," she says to Rachel.

Rachel shuts it and runs over next to her. "Is it done?"

"No." Quinn tries to stay calm amidst her panic. It still needs a couple more minutes, but she can't risk Rachel getting caught here. She points to a storage closet across the room and says, "Go in there."

Rachel does as she's instructed. Quinn hears the door for the main entrance open and rips the drive out and closes all of the open windows on the screen. She slams the laptop shut and shoves it into the bag, making sure to secure the latch back into place.

She hears footsteps coming closer and runs to the closet. She forces herself into the tiny room and shuts the door. It's so cramped that she finds herself face to face with Rachel.

The office door opens and the light turns on as someone walks in. Quinn can tell by the sound of clicking heels that it's Kitty. She brings her hand up and gently pushes one finger against Rachel's lips.

Rachel stops breathing. If she wasn't going to have a heart attack from being so terrified, Quinn was going to be the cause of it. The blonde drops her hand and squeezes one of Rachel's, silently telling her that everything is okay. The action only causes Rachel's heart to beat faster. When Quinn tries to pull away, she doesn't let her.

They here some rustling on the other side of the door. And then all of a sudden it's completely silent. Quinn's eyes widen, wondering if Kitty's noticed that something is off. A phone begins ringing, luckily not one of theirs, and she hears Kitty's voice.

"What?" Quinn leans her head closer to the door to hear better. "Alright. I'm on my way."

They hear more rustling and footsteps. The light turns off and the office door closes, and then the footsteps become more faint in the distance.

Rachel shifts and Quinn squeezes her hand. "Hang on," she whispers.

She waits a few more minutes, just to be certain. And she can't exactly complain when she can be this close to Rachel. She can feel the other woman's breath warm against her face and she wants nothing more than to lean in.

"I think she's gone," she says.

Rachel's breathing returns to normal. "I think so too."

"Are you okay?"

She feels Rachel nod. "I'm fine."

They finally get out of the closet. Quinn scowls when she sees that the briefcase and laptop are gone. "Dammit."

"Maybe your flash drive got something useful?"

"Maybe," Quinn says. She takes Rachel's hand again and says, "Let's get you out of here." She doesn't let go until they make it back to the car.

* * *

They get back to Quinn's empty apartment not long after. She notices that Brittany still isn't there, probably staying the night with Santana. But that's fine with Quinn because she'd rather not have Satan over here. And besides, she has Rachel with her.

She looks at the brunette to see hesitation etched on her face. Rachel doesn't know whether or not Quinn needs her to leave.

"You can sit down," Quinn says softly. "I'll be right back." She goes to her room to get her laptop. When she comes back, she sees Rachel sitting on the couch, smiling up at her.

She sits down next to Rachel and opens her computer. "Hopefully we got something," she says as she turns it on. While they wait for it to power up, Quinn says, "Kitty mentioned earlier that you got her expelled."

"She got herself expelled. All I did was report what she did." At Quinn's suspicious look, Rachel says, "I didn't make it up this time."

Quinn laughs. "I wouldn't be surprised."

"Haha," Rachel deadpans. "She deserved it."

"What did she do?" Quinn watches as Rachel furrows her brow. "You don't have to talk about it, if you don't want." She remembers how upset Rachel became the last time this was brought up.

Rachel sighs. "She'd always hated me because Finn dumped her for me. I guess it was more of a hit on her ego and reputation because I wasn't exactly popular back then. I think she was teased by the other cheerleaders for it."

"So she wanted revenge?"

Rachel nods. "She always picked on me whenever she got a chance, but then she took it too far. It was at our senior prom. I went with Finn, of course. And sometime during the night, I went to the bathroom, and she and ten other girls from the cheerleading squad followed me and cornered me in there."

Quinn stiffens, ready to drive to Kitty's house at that moment and slap the living crap out of her if she laid a hand on Rachel.

"They all had a cup of iced slushies with them. Kitty snapped her fingers and all of them emptied their cups on me at the same time."

"That's horrible."

"It was. My dress was completely ruined, and I stayed on the floor crying until Finn and Kurt found me. They took me home."

"I'm sorry that your prom was ruined," Quinn says sincerely.

Rachel chuckles. "It didn't end too badly. Me, Finn, Kurt, and some of our other friends had a little anti-Prom party at my house after I changed."

Quinn smiles. "That actually sounds pretty cool." She then furrows her brow. "And Kitty was expelled because of that incident?"

"Yes. And she had to retake her classes because she lost credit, so she didn't graduate until a semester later. And she had assault on her record because of it."

"I bet she was pissed."

Rachel shrugs. "Like I said, she deserved it."

Quinn wholeheartedly agrees. She looks down at her lap to see that her computer is powered up. "Let's see what we got," she says as she plugs the flash drive in. She's secretly hoping that maybe Kitty is the one behind all of this so that bitch can be put away for good.

Rachel leans in close to her shoulder to get a view of the screen. Quinn blinks and ignores how good her shampoo smells. She has a job to do.

Except the flash drive file comes up as empty. "Dammit!" she yells. She had yanked the stupid thing out before everything could finish transferring properly and nothing was saved.

Rachel groans. "Well this was a bust."

Quinn nods and puts the laptop away. "I'm so sorry, Rachel."

"It's not your fault."

"I just feel like I completely wasted your time tonight. But don't worry, I'm going to find something on her." Quinn is sure as hell she will.

"Even if it's not her, I still trust you'll find them, Quinn." Rachel turns her whole body to face her. "And besides, I don't mind being in your company."

Quinn turns as well and licks her lips. In a playful tone, she says, "I'm starting to think you don't really hate me, after all."

Rachel rolls her eyes. "Like I said, you're—"

"Not so bad," Quinn finishes for her with a smirk.

Rachel nods silently.

"I'm starting to like you, too."

"Are you?"

"I really like you," Quinn drops her voice an octave, "a lot."

Rachel leans in closer. "The same way I like you?"

Quinn nods, her eyes never breaking contact. "I don't think I've liked someone as much as this in a long time."

Rachel moves her hand and boldly places it on Quinn's waist. She feels the blonde shiver at the touch and notices her breathing becoming ragged. It's intoxicating. "I feel the same."

Quinn leans in even closer to where their foreheads are touching. She closes her eyes and inhales. "What are you doing to me, Rachel Berry?"

Rachel smiles and trails her hand up Quinn's arm and lets it rest on her shoulder. Not only was this thing with Quinn exhilarating, it was also terrifying. And yet she's never wanted to dive into something— _someone_ —this fast before. "So, where do we go from here?"

A phone starts ringing loudly, breaking them out of their spell. Rachel groans when she realizes that it's hers.

"I guess wait until the timing is right," Quinn says, in response to her question. She's also clearly disappointed.

Rachel smiles apologetically and gets up to get her phone out of her purse on the table. She curses when she sees that it's Will calling, and briefly considers ignoring it. But then he'll just keep calling, so she answers it. "Yes?"

"Where are you?"

"I'm at home," she automatically lies, looking back at an amused Quinn and shrugging.

"Okay. I'll be over as soon as I can."

"What!" she shrieks. "Why?"

"Well I just got off the phone with Sue. Warner Brothers has a new version of the script. I don't exactly what changes they made, but I'm on my way to pick it up now, then I'll take it to you."

She sighs. "You're kidding me."

"Trust me, I'm just as displeased as you are."

"Yeah, okay. See you soon." She hangs up as Quinn walks over to her.

"You have to go?" the blonde asks.

"Unfortunately," Rachel answers. She takes a breath and puts her hand back on Quinn's shoulder. "So, when the timing is right?"

Quinn nods with a smile. "When the timing is right," she repeats. She takes Rachel's hand with her own and says, "I'll walk you out."

They walk to Rachel's car in silence, not necessarily awkward. Rachel bumps her shoulder against Quinn's. She just loves any sort of contact with the blonde. "We'll talk tomorrow?" she asks when they reach the car.

Quinn nods. "I'll call you."

"Goodnight, Quinn."

Quinn glances around nervously to see if anyone can see them. Rachel knows what she wants to do. "It's okay," she says.

Quinn looks back at her and leans forward, placing a soft kiss on her cheek. "Goodnight, Rachel," she whispers in her ear.

Rachel doesn't even feel disappointed that it wasn't an actual kiss because she's melting inside right now. When they part, she ducks her head bashfully and gets in the car.

Quinn flashes her one more smile before retreating back to her apartment. Rachel watches her go with a soft gaze.

"What are you doing to me, Quinn Fabray?"

* * *

 **A/N:** Thank you for reading!


	7. Chapter 7

**Title:** Right Behind You

 **Rating:** M for later chapters

 **Summary:** Rachel Berry is trying to make a name for herself as an actress in Hollywood, but someone is trying to ruin her life and make sure that doesn't happen. A private investigator named Quinn Fabray somehow becomes involved in the whole thing and gets more than she bargained for. But will she be able to help Rachel?

 **Warnings:** None for this chapter.

* * *

Kurt gets out of the car and takes off his sunglasses. He wrinkles his nose in disgust as he observes the building in front of him. "Is this really where she works?"

Rachel slams the passenger door shut. "I guess so." She turns to Quinn and says, "Are you sure this is the right address?"

Quinn looks down at her phone and back up at the building with a frown. "Yeah, it looks like this is it."

"Poor Tina," Kurt says dramatically. "I never thought her life would end up being this tragic."

The three find themselves standing in front of a small, worn out diner on the far west side of town. It's not too far from the tire shop Finn works at, Quinn notes to herself. She had earlier told Rachel that she was going to ask Tina some questions, and Rachel had insisted on coming with Kurt so that they could catch up with their old friend.

Quinn doesn't mind. She just hopes she gets something useful out of Tina. "Ready when you guys are," she says.

Kurt is the first to go in. There's only a handful of customers spread out throughout the place. It smells like a mix of bacon and death, and Kurt instantly brings a hand up to cover his nose before Rachel swats his shoulder and tells him to stop. Quinn laughs to herself.

One of the waitresses, a forty-something woman with red hair and cheap lipstick, glances at them and grumbles, "Table for three?" Her voice sounds like she smokes a few packs a day.

"We're actually here to see Tina Cohen-Chang," Kurt says.

"Tina!" the waitress screeches. "You got visitors!"

An Asian girl appears from the back kitchen. Her white apron is covered in food stains and her hair is pulled up in a messy ponytail. She looks like she hasn't slept in days. "What?"

"Visitors!" the other waitress repeats.

As Tina gets closer, her eyes widen and her face splits into a grin. "Kurt! Rachel!"

"Tina!" Kurt squeals before pulling her into a bone-crushing hug. Rachel then gives her one as well, but not nearly as enthusiastically as Kurt. Quinn just takes a step back, feeling out of place.

"What are you guys doing here?" Tina asks.

"We're here to see you," Kurt says like it's obvious.

"Oh!" Tina blushes. "I was just about to go on break." She looks at the other waitress and says, "Can you take over for a little while?"

"Yeah, yeah. Don't take too long."

The trio follow her to an unoccupied booth by one of the windows. Kurt slides into one side of the booth while Rachel scoots next to Quinn on the other side. Tina hands them all menus with a smile and says, "You guys can order whatever you want. It's on the house."

"I'll just take a water," Rachel says, wiping down the table with a napkin while trying to hide her repulsion.

"Water," Kurt says as he hands the menu back.

Quinn looks through her menu quickly and says, "I'll also have a water." She looks back up at Tina and says, "I'm Quinn, by the way."

Tina smiles. "Nice to meet you. I'll be right back."

When she leaves, Kurt leans forward and whispers, "How long has it been?"

Rachel assumes he's referring to the last time they saw Tina. "At least a year?"

"Here you guys go," Tina announces as she comes back to the table with all of their waters. She takes the spot next to Kurt. "So… Long time no see."

"Yes, it's been a very long time. And I'm so sorry I haven't called much," Rachel says. "I've just been so busy lately."

Tina waves her off. "It's okay, Rachel. I know your life is probably crazy right now."

 _You have no idea,_ Rachel thinks.

"Artie and I have been watching your shows on TV," Tina says. "He likes the hospital one more."

"How is Artie?" Kurt asks.

Tina sighs. "Still unemployed."

An awkward silence takes over the table. Rachel clears her throat.

"So, Quinn," Tina says. She looks around before lowering her voice and glancing at both Quinn and Rachel. "Are you guys… together?"

Quinn's face heats up. She doesn't have to look at Rachel to know that she probably looks the same as she does. "Um…"

"Rachel wishes," Kurt answers for them. If possible, Quinn turns even redder.

"Quinn works for me," Rachel says with a huff, glaring at Kurt.

Quinn nods. "Yes. I work for Rachel."

"Oh. Sorry, I just assumed because of," Tina waves her hand back and forth between them in a vague manner. "Never mind. So what do you do, exactly?"

"Investigative work." Tina's expression becomes even more confused.

"Tina, while we're hear to catch up, there's actually another reason I came to see you," Rachel says. They need to get the ball rolling before Tina has to go back to work.

"Okay?"

"Do you remember those things I was telling you about from back in college?"

"What things?"

"With the dirty pictures, and the emails, and the room trashing," Kurt says.

Tina nods with a frown. "Yeah?"

"Well that person has made an appearance in my life again just recently. And the reason I hired Quinn here was so she could help me find them," Rachel says.

Tina looks at her in disbelief. "You think _I_ have something to do with it?"

"No!" Quinn jumps in quickly. She doesn't want Tina to get the wrong impression. The girl is still a suspect, no matter how much Rachel denies it, but Tina obviously can't know that. "I just want to get some insight from all of Rachel's closest friends," she explains.

"Any information that you can give us will help with the case," Kurt says.

Tina looks skeptical, but she nods nevertheless. "I'm sorry, but I don't really have any information to give you."

"That's okay. I just have some questions for you," Quinn says as she pulls her notepad out of her bag. She opens it to the page of questions she wrote down earlier.

Rachel glances at it and looks back at her old friend. "Have you kept in touch with anyone from high school?"

"Besides Artie, you mean?" Rachel nods. "We still hang out with Finn sometimes on the weekends. He comes over to watch football."

Quinn lifts an eyebrow. "Finn?"

"Yeah," Tina says. "I haven't seen him in a few weeks, but I think he's just busy with work."

"How has he been since high school?" Quinn asks.

Tina sighs. "He's been all over the place ever since," she looks at Rachel, "you guys broke up. And he's been having a hard time at the tire shop. He's been trying to become a manager, but they won't promote him. He gets frustrated about that a lot."

Quinn writes that down. "Does he ever talk about Rachel?"

Tina pauses before looking at Rachel hesitantly. "It's okay, Tina," the brunette says.

She looks back to Quinn. "Here and there."

"In what context?"

Tina shrugs. "Good and bad. Sometimes he says he's happy for her and her career. Other times he's not and says some mean things." She quickly adds, "But like I said, he's just been really frustrated these past few years with where he is in life, you know?"

Quinn nods. "So from your personal opinion, you think he still holds resentment towards Rachel?"

"Yeah." Tina turns to Rachel apologetically. "No offense."

Rachel swallows and looks down at her lap. She feels momentary comfort when Quinn stealthily reaches over and squeezes her hand.

"But I don't think he would do anything to hurt Rachel like that," Tina says.

"I feel the same," Kurt adds, giving Quinn a pointed look.

"I'm just looking into everything," Quinn says with a sigh. "What about Kitty Wilde? Have you heard from her?"

"God no," Tina says in disdain. "I hated her in high school. We all did."

"That's what I keep hearing."

"I do know that she became a realtor, though. And she's making a lot of money with that. And she was married, but they got divorced like last year or something."

Quinn nods. "Do you have any mutual friends that you're still in contact with?"

"A couple, I guess."

"And do you know if she's said anything about Rachel? Anything at all?"

"Other than how much she hates her?"

Rachel inhales and locks eyes with Kurt. He looks at her sympathetically. It's a surprise to neither of them that Kitty still holds a grudge for everything that happened all those years ago.

"Right," Quinn says lowly. "Have you kept in touch with anyone else from your Glee club? Do you know what they've been up to?"

"Sort of. We all know what Mercedes has been doing. I think Mike Chang got married and moved upstate somewhere. Jacob Ben Israel is still a creep from what I hear. Sugar Motta lives in Vegas. Lauren Zises is the boys wrestling coach at the high school." Tina furrows her brow as she tries to remember everyone. "Oh, and Sunshine is a doctor in Malibu."

Quinn nods. "I was actually going to pay her a visit later," she mutters as she writes her notes down.

"You are?" Rachel asks.

"Planning on it," Quinn says as she continues writing. She has to see if she has someone else to add to her list of top suspects besides Finn and Kitty.

"I think I have to go back to work now," Tina says. "I'm sorry I couldn't tell you more."

Quinn looks at her with a smile. "You've been a great help, Tina. I really appreciate it."

"So do I," Rachel adds.

"And we need to get together soon and _really_ catch up," Kurt says. "With Artie, too."

"He'd love that," Tina says. "He's just been stuck at the apartment lately, so it'll be good for him."

"I'll call you soon," Rachel says.

After they say their goodbyes to Tina, Kurt is the first one out the door. "Air!" he calls out when he reaches the outside.

Rachel rolls her eyes and puts her sunglasses back on. She pulls her phone out to check her messages, seeing several, mainly from Will. She groans and begins responding.

"Schuester blowing up your phone too?" Kurt asks as he scrolls through his own phone.

She nods. "I don't think the phrase 'I'm taking a personal day' computes in his mind."

"The man goes crazy without work to do. He's probably just freaking out because your audition is tomorrow."

Quinn finishes responding to her message from Brittany and says, "I'll be in the car."

"I'm coming," Rachel says quickly as she follows her, shoving a laughing Kurt along the way.

"I'll be there in a minute," he says. "I have to check in with Will. Unless you'd rather do it."

"No thank you," she calls out over her shoulder. She opens the car door and scoots next to Quinn in the backseat.

"Not a fan of the front?" Quinn asks teasingly.

Rachel smiles and shakes her head. "I'd rather be next to you."

Quinn fights a goofy grin and clears her throat. "So, Tina seems to think that Kitty has something to do with this. How do you feel about that?"

"I don't know. I haven't even seen Kitty since high school. Do you think it could be her?"

Quinn shrugs. "Maybe." She looks away and down at her phone.

Rachel frowns. "You think it's Finn, don't you?"

"I think it's likely that it's one of them," Quinn says. "And I'm saying this because I'm going by my instinct, not because of how I feel—" She clamps her mouth shut.

"How you feel about me," Rachel finishes softly. After that night at Quinn's apartment, they haven't really had a chance to talk about it.

Quinn nods. "Yeah," she says quietly. She looks back at Rachel and says, "But I promised you I was going to get to the bottom of this, and that's what I'm going to do. And like I said, I'm going to see Sunshine later."

"I want to go with you," Rachel says.

Quinn exhales with a light laugh. "Rachel, you can't keep tagging along in your own investigation."

"I need to talk to her," Rachel says, "because I owe her an apology for what I did."

"For sending her unknowingly into a crack house?" Quinn asks with a smirk.

Rachel huffs. "Yes. But in my defense, it wasn't an _active_ crack house."

"It's still pretty terrible."

"Just let me go with you," Rachel snaps.

"Fine. But you can see her only after I talk to her, okay?"

"Deal."

Quinn smiles triumphantly because that didn't take much arguing. Rachel wants to wipe that smirk right off of her face. Preferably by—

"What's taking Kurt so long?" Quinn asks suddenly. They look out the window to see him still on the phone with a look of impatience etched on his face. He glances at Rachel and mouths 'I hate him' while pointing to his phone.

Rachel grimaces. "It's just Will," she says. When Kurt turns away, she looks back at Quinn and sighs.

"What?"

"Nothing," she says. "It's just been a long week."

Quinn hesitates at first, but she reaches up to carefully take off Rachel's sunglasses before placing a hand on the side of her face. "You look tired," she murmurs.

Rachel almost doesn't hear the words because she's so distracted by Quinn's touch. "I haven't been getting much sleep," she says absently.

Quinn frowns and pulls her hand away. "You haven't?"

Rachel realizes what she said and quickly adds, "I've just been so busy preparing for this audition." That much was true, but what she doesn't want to mention is the strange feeling she's been getting late at night in fear of coming off as paranoid and delusional. It's been more persistent lately, and she's at the point where she's calling Kurt to come over nearly every night.

"It's almost here," Quinn says, referring to the audition. "Are you nervous?"

"Beyond belief." Rachel laughs dryly. "I just want to get it over with."

"You're going to be amazing," Quinn says with a smile.

"I hope so."

Kurt finally gets in the car, effectively interrupting their moment, and says, "Let's get out of here." He looks back at the two of them with a frown. "I guess I'm the chauffer for today."

Quinn retreats further back into her seat and clears her throat. Rachel rolls her eyes. "Just drive, Hummel."

* * *

After parting ways with Kurt, Rachel goes with Quinn on the short trip to Malibu. The time in Quinn's car is mainly spent discussing her history with Sunshine, which, like she's said before, was very brief. Quinn learns that Sunshine transferred to another school right after the incident and Rachel hasn't had any contact with her ever since.

They soon reach the hospital Sunshine works at, a tall building located only a block away from the beach. Quinn parks the car in the front and looks at Rachel. "Are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yes," Rachel says with a sigh. "Like I said, I owe her an apology. A _real_ one."

"I'll try to butter her up before she sees you. You know, just to make sure she doesn't attack you or something," Quinn jokes.

Rachel chuckles. "I wouldn't worry about that. I can take her. She's smaller than I am."

"Is that even possible?" The remark earns a playful shove from Rachel.

They go inside the building and approach the first elevator they come across. Once the door opens, they go in and Quinn pushes the button for the cardiology floor. As they quietly wait side by side, Rachel presses her shoulder against Quinn's. The blonde smiles.

"Are you ready?" Rachel asks.

"I'm always ready," Quinn replies. "I did a lot of digging on her and it's pretty clear that she's been really busy since high school. I think we can rule her out, but I just need to be sure."

Rachel nods. The door opens and they step out together into the main waiting area. Rachel goes to sit in one of the chairs while Quinn approaches the desk.

"Hello, I'm here to see Dr. Corazon," she says cordially. "She should be expecting me."

"Ah, yes," the nurse behind the desk says. "She's in her office. It's the third door on the right down this hallway."

"Thank you." Quinn turns to look back at Rachel once more before setting off. She has no trouble finding the room and knocks before opening the door.

A small Asian woman in a lab coat sits at a desk writing some notes down. She pauses to look up at Quinn. "Can I help you?"

"My name is Quinn Fabray. We spoke earlier on the phone…"

"Right!" Sunshine puts all of her papers into a file and sets it aside. "Please, have a seat." Quinn smiles and sits in one of the chairs placed in front of the desk. "I have a surgery scheduled in an hour."

"I promise this won't take that long," Quinn reassures.

Sunshine nods. "So, you're a private investigator, and you mentioned earlier that this is in regards to Rachel Berry?"

"That's correct," Quinn says. "I can't disclose exactly what this relates to, but I appreciate your cooperation."

"I read enough news to have an idea," Sunshine says, looking at Quinn knowingly.

She sighs and pulls out her notepad. "Okay then, so you knew Rachel for a brief time in high school?"

"Yes. For two weeks, maybe. And I'm sure you heard about why I decided to transfer."

"I did," Quinn answers. "You haven't had any contact with Rachel ever since what happened?"

Sunshine shakes her head. "None whatsoever."

"I know that things like that can be traumatic, and it's not uncommon for people to hold strong grudges long after—"

"I know where you're going with this," Sunshine stops her. "And yes, what Rachel did was horrible, but I don't hold any resentment towards her."

Quinn frowns. "You don't?"

"Not at all." Sunshine smiles softly. "We all did stupid things when we were teenagers. And in the end, no one was hurt, so I'm not going to hold it against her forever. And besides," Sunshine reaches for a picture frame on her desk and turns it around, "I wouldn't have met my future husband if I hadn't transferred schools. So I guess in a weird way, I have her to thank for that."

"Husband?" Quinn peers down at the picture. It's of Sunshine and a rather handsome man on their wedding day.

"We're coming up on our two-year anniversary," Sunshine says. She also pats her stomach, "And this one is due in three months."

"Congratulations," Quinn says, finally noticing the small bump on the other woman.

"Thank you. And as you can see, I'm completely happy with my life right now. But I can understand where your concerns are coming from."

Quinn nods. "I'm just doing my job."

"I have no ill feelings towards Rachel and I wish her nothing but the best in life. And I'm willing to fully cooperate with you in your investigation going forward," Sunshine says.

"I appreciate that. I'll call you if I have any further questions."

"Good."

Quinn stands. "I'll let you get back to work now."

"Oh, and one more thing?" Sunshine says.

Quinn pauses. "Yes?"

"Can you please pass the message on to Rachel when you have the chance? I don't want her to think I hate her or anything."

She smiles. "I think maybe you'll have the chance to personally pass it on."

* * *

Quinn leans her weight back on her hands, burying he fingers into the sand. She exhales as she listens to the waves in the distance, as well as the chatter of other people scattered around the beach.

She's still waiting on Rachel to come out. She's been waiting a while, but it's not often that Quinn gets a chance to relax like this, so she doesn't mind.

She sighs when her phone starts ringing. She picks it up to see Brittany calling. Since Quinn was in Malibu, she had Brittany tail Finn Hudson for the day to see if they could discover something. She answers, "Any updates?"

"No," Brittany says sadly. "After he got off work, he went straight home and he's been here for a couple hours."

Quinn huffs to herself. "Are you still outside his apartment?"

"Yeah. He came out once to take the trash to the dumpster. I ducked down so he couldn't see me." Quinn hears rustling and assumes Brittany is eating chips or something. "How long do you want me to stay out here?"

Quinn glances at the horizon to see the sun getting closer to setting. "You can leave now. I don't want you out there past dark."

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah."

"Okay." The sound of an engine starting can be heard. "I'll see you at home."

"Bye."

When she hangs up, a voice behind her says, "Everything okay?"

"Jesus!" Quinn jumps up and turns around to see Rachel. "Sorry, you scared me. And I told you to call me when you were done. You didn't have to come looking for me."

Rachel shrugs. "I didn't want to bother you." She smiles at Quinn. "You're always so jumpy and paranoid."

Seeing a lot of the things that she has will do that to a person, Quinn thinks. "How did it go in there?" she asks.

"A lot better than I thought it would," Rachel says. "I was expecting some harsh words or a face slap or something."

"That's because you're a drama queen."

Rachel nudges her shoulder. "Shut up."

Quinn laughs. "So everything is good between you?"

Rachel nods. "She said she was glad that I took the time to come out here and apologize face to face."

"I'm surprised you did, too. Not a lot of people would be willing to do this."

Rachel shrugs. "I guess I'm just trying to be a better person."

Quinn frowns. "You don't think you're a good person?"

"I _know_ I'm not the best person. I can be extremely difficult and selfish, and I need to work on that."

Quinn's impressed. She's seeing how much she underestimated Rachel in the very beginning. "Is there a reason for this sudden change?"

"I don't know," Rachel says. She gazes up at Quinn through her lashes and murmurs, "Maybe being around you makes me want to be a better person."

Quinn smiles. Maybe it's the atmosphere around them, but she can't take the tension between them anymore. So she finds herself leaning in, only to be suddenly stopped by a hand on her shoulder.

"Quinn," Rachel whispers, glancing around. "There's too many people here."

"Oh." Quinn instantly snaps out of her daze and takes a step back, feeling stupid, not to mention vulnerable. She feels her face heating up. "Sorry. I just wasn't thinking."

"Quinn…" Rachel feels terrible for this, and she wishes more than anything that it could've happened. But someone could easily recognize her. "It's okay. And I'm sorry. I just—"

"We should go," Quinn interrupts. "It's getting late."

Rachel sighs. "Yeah, it is."

Quinn tries her best to keep the drive back from being awkward. But even with her attempts at steering the conversation to literally anything else, the awkwardness still lingers between them.

She feels like a complete idiot for trying something in the open like that. It still hurts. But if she wants to really _try_ this whole thing with Rachel eventually, it's something she's going to have to get used to. Maybe it's not ideal, but she's willing to try for her. Quinn just wants to do this the right way, whatever that means…

She parks her car in front of Rachel's apartment and turns to her and exhales. "I know it may not seem like it, but I think we're getting closer on your case. I just need a little more time."

Rachel reaches over and takes her hand. "I trust you, Quinn."

She smiles. "Good luck with your audition tomorrow."

Rachel returns the smile. "I'll call you when I'm done and let you know how it went."

"You're going to be amazing, Rachel. And trust me, all of this time spent rehearsing and practicing is going to be worth it. This role is yours." Quinn feels it in her heart.

Rachel has a momentary internal battle, especially with the way the blonde is looking at her, and their faces being mere inches apart. All of the willpower she has is quickly disappearing.

Screw it. It's dark out, and there's nobody out there that can see them anyway. She leans over the center console and closes the short distance between their lips.

At first contact, Quinn is stunned by the sudden move, but she's quick to respond and brings a hand up to Rachel's neck to hold her in place. The kiss is chaste and gentle. Nothing extravagant, and yet still perfect. Their lips only move together for a short time before Quinn forces herself to pull away.

She slowly breathes out, her eyes still squeezed shut. She only opens them when Rachel leans in for one more quick peck.

"I hope this makes up for earlier," Rachel whispers.

"I think it's a start," Quinn says in a light tone.

Rachel sighs as she looks out at her apartment. She wants to ask Quinn to stay, but that would be a bad idea. Not only is it too soon for _that_ , but she also has the stupid audition in the morning and she can't have anymore distractions until it's done. Even though Quinn is a welcome distraction…

"Maybe another time," Quinn says, reading her mind.

"I'll hold you to it." It comes out much more seductive than Rachel intended.

Quinn swallows. She wishes she could go in there and take Rachel right now, but she knows deep down that it wouldn't be a good decision. Baby steps.

She really hates baby steps at the moment. But nevertheless, she takes a breath and puts on a smile. "Goodnight, Rachel."

Rachel goes in once more to press a light kiss on her cheek. "Goodnight, Quinn," she whispers in her ear.

She reluctantly pulls herself away from the blonde. She squeezes her hand before letting go and quickly opening the door and getting out of the car. She needs to go before she starts to decide otherwise.

She turns and flashes a quick smile at Quinn before ducking her head and going inside.

Quinn exhales as she stares at the closed door. She then drops her head on the steering wheel and sighs. She's falling hard for Rachel Berry.

* * *

Brittany notices her elevated mood almost as soon as she walks into the door. "What happened?" the excited blonde asks with a grin as she hurries over to Quinn.

"Nothing," Quinn says as she takes of her coat, but she still can't fight the smile on her face.

"That is so not nothing! I haven't seen that look on you in a long time. What happened with Rachel?" Brittany smirks. "Did you guys finally bang?"

Quinn laughs. "No, Britt."

Brittany pouts as Quinn moves past her to set her bag down. "Did you make out at least?" At Quinn's silence, Brittany beams again. "Finally!"

"We just kissed, and that's it," Quinn says as she takes a seat.

"Aw!" Brittany sits down across from her. "Does she taste like sunshine and rainbows? Did you see stars?"

Quinn shakes her head with a laugh. She's thankful when the phone begins ringing. "Can you get that?" she asks as she pulls out her notes.

"Fine. But you're not getting out of this." Brittany picks up the phone. "Fabray Investigations, how may I help you?"

Quinn starts reading through everything she wrote down for the day, but she's not able to focus. She's still on a high after that amazing kiss with Rachel. She briefly contemplates maybe calling or texting, but she doesn't want to distract the actress from her audition tomorrow. And screw calling, she just wants to see her…

"Quinn!" Brittany whispers harshly with a hand covering the speaker on the phone.

She frowns at the look on Brittany's face. Something is definitely wrong. "What is it?"

"It's them," the other blonde whispers.

"Who?"

" _Them_. Rachel's—"

Quinn yanks the phone out of her hand before she can finish and barks into the speaker, "Who is this?"

"You're starting to go too far, Fabray." The voice is deep and unnatural, almost in a mechanical way. Quinn knows right away that this person, whoever it is, is using some sort of voice changer.

Anger and frustration quickly takes over her. "Who is this?" she repeats.

They laugh. "You think it's going to be that easy? I've got news for you, you're in for a rude awakening."

"What do you want?" she nearly yells. Brittany stares at her with wide eyes in fear.

"I want you to mind your own business and walk away. You really think you're any closer to finding me? All you're doing is getting in my way. So do yourself a favor, and give it up already."

"Or else what?" Quinn challenges.

"Or else you're really going to regret ever getting involved. Trust me, Fabray. I wouldn't mess with me if I were you."

Quinn stays quiet. There's no way she's ever going to let this asshole get away with it. Over her dead body.

"I have big plans for Rachel Berry, and if you keep interfering with this, I'll make big plans for you too."

"Fuck you."

They laugh again. "Your play, Fabray. But take my advice and step aside. _Or else_."

The line goes silent. Quinn slams the phone down violently. "God dammit!"

"You didn't find out who it was?" Brittany asks.

She sighs. "No, Brittany. The number is blocked."

"Is there any way you can trace the call?" Brittany says, trying to at least be helpful.

"Even if we tried, we don't have the equipment, and they weren't on the line for that long." Quinn rubs her forehead. "Are you sure it was the same voice from the first time?"

"I'm one-hundred percent positive."

Quinn nods. "Good."

"What did they say?"

"That we need to back away from Rachel or else."

"We can't do that!"

"I know," Quinn says. That's the last thing she'll do. If anything, she's going to stick with Rachel even more than she already is.

"What do we do?" Brittany asks. "Should we go to the police? Do you want me to talk to Santana?"

Quinn shakes her head. She puts her negative feelings toward Santana aside when she says, "There's not much they can do with a phone call from a blocked number anyway."

Brittany nods sadly in agreement. "This sucks."

Quinn rubs her temple. She needs to finish this. Now.

"Going forward, everything else is going to be on the backburner," she says resolutely. She swears to herself that she's not going to let anything happen to Rachel on her watch. "This case is going to be our _only_ priority until we find this asshole."

"Got it." Brittany grabs a few files from one of the drawers. The files on Rachel's case. "Where do we go from here?"

"We start at the very beginning," Quinn says. "Maybe there's something we missed."

* * *

 **A/N:** Thanks for reading :)


	8. Chapter 8

**Title:** Right Behind You

 **Rating:** M for later chapters

 **Summary:** Rachel Berry is trying to make a name for herself as an actress in Hollywood, but someone is trying to ruin her life and make sure that doesn't happen. A private investigator named Quinn Fabray somehow becomes involved in the whole thing and gets more than she bargained for. But will she be able to help Rachel?

 **Warnings:** None for this chapter.

 **A/N:** Hello everyone. I want you all to know that I'm incredibly sorry for taking so long to update. Life's been getting in the way and it's been really hard finding time to write.

Anyway, I hope that you enjoy this chapter!

* * *

"And maybe I won't get to call you mine forever. Maybe our time is running out. But I don't want to think of that right now. And I'm going to make the most out of every moment we have together." Rachel keeps her head turned away for the dramatic effect. She only looks forward when she hears someone speak.

"Thank you, Ms. Berry," the casting director says.

She holds back a frown when neither the casting director nor the dozen other people with him give away any indication of how her audition went. They just wordlessly jot down their notes without a second glance. There's a camera that's been recording her and she hopes her tape will be one of the few to make it to the director of the film.

"We'll be in touch," he adds, giving her the cue to leave the room.

She nods and smiles. "Thank you for your time." She turns and heads straight for the door.

Out in the hallway, Will and Kurt are waiting on her. "How did it go?" they both ask at the same time.

She sighs. "I _think_ it was fine."

"What does that mean?" Will asks in his usual demeaning tone. "Did you forget a line? Were you rushing again?"

"No," Rachel says, frustrated. "It went fine, okay? I guess it's just the nerves." And it was true. She can feel her hands still shaking. Kurt frowns and wraps an arm around her shoulder sympathetically.

"I need more than that, Rachel. You know Sue is going to be riding my ass about getting a play-by-play," Will says impatiently.

"If she said it was fine, then she did fine, Will," Kurt snaps at him. "Can't you just chill out for once?"

Rachel subtly smiles at her best friend defending her. She would probably be going off on Schuester herself if she didn't feel so drained right now.

He huffs and is quiet for a moment as he thinks to himself. He then looks at Rachel and says, "I'm sorry. You've been working really hard lately, and I'm sure you did great."

She refrains from rolling her eyes. "Thanks, Will."

He nods. "Why don't we all just take a breather and I'll talk to you later this afternoon."

"Sounds great," Kurt says in relief.

"I could use a break," Rachel agrees.

Will continues staring at them hesitantly before turning to leave. He looks like he has no idea what to do with himself right now. "I guess I'll see you later."

When he disappears down the hallway, Rachel turns to Kurt and playfully says, "My hero."

Kurt chuckles. "I spend just as much time with him as you do. He's lucky I didn't punch him in the face. I swear, he would not shut up while you were in there."

She smiles at him. "Well, thank you for speaking up for me. I'm too exhausted to fight today."

"I bet," he says. "Hungry?"

"Starving," she answers. She doesn't like eating before auditions because one of her worst fears is throwing up on the spot in front of everyone. It's never happened, but one can never be too cautious.

"Let's go get some breakfast," Kurt says as he leads them down the hallway. He holds her purse up and says, "Your bag, my lady."

She takes it from him and starts digging around inside for her phone. When she finds it, she's disappointed to see nothing from Quinn.

"I take it that look of disdain is because you have no new messages from one Quinn Fabray?" Kurt says as he bumps her shoulder.

She pouts. "It's pathetic, isn't it?"

"She's probably just waiting to make sure you're done with the audition first," Kurt offers.

"I know," she whines as they step outside. "I just want to talk to her and be around her all the time."

"Uh oh." Kurt smirks as he puts on his sunglasses.

She narrows her eyes. "What?"

He pokes her. "It seems to me that Rachel Berry is in love."

Her face flushes red. She puts on her own sunglasses and clears her throat. "I think it's too soon to be assuming things like that, Kurt."

"Uh huh," he teases. He shakes his head at her. "Don't be afraid to admit it. When was the last time you even felt this way about someone?"

They walk to the car as she blows out a puff of air. "I honestly can't remember."

"Have you at least talked about where this is heading?"

She sighs. "We agreed to move forward when the time is right."

"You mean when all of this is through?" She nods in affirmation. "But kissing is still okay?" he says in amusement.

"I told you, it was just one kiss." She furrows her brow. "Or two… or three. But that's beside the point."

"The point is you're probably going to keep doing it, aren't you?" It's clear that he's enjoying teasing her.

"Yes!" Rachel exclaims. "If she ever decides to talk to me," she whimpers as she looks down at her phone again to see nothing.

Kurt laughs and opens the car door for her. "I'm sure she'll call later when she's not busy. Now let's get you something to eat before you explode."

* * *

The morning air is starting to warm up. Quinn feels a slight breeze as she leans against a wall. Feeling bored, she checks her watch with a sigh. Any minute now.

She left her phone in the car because she doesn't want any distractions right now. She's still fuming over last night's phone call and is determined to move forward with Rachel's case. She needs something. _Anything_.

The apartment door finally opens and Jacob Ben Israel steps outside. His back is turned to Quinn as he lifts his keys to lock the door, but she speaks before he has a chance to lock it. "Hello, Jacob."

He yelps and whirls around with wide eyes. He stammers before turning around to try and run away from her. But like last time, she's quicker than him and grabs him by the back of his jacket. "Don't even try it," she says as she yanks him and opens the door to shove him back into the apartment. She lets go of him and stands in front of the door with her arms crossed.

"What do you want?" he squeaks out.

"To talk," she answers innocently.

"I don't have any information to give you…"

"Bullshit." She steps closer. He backs away until he's against a wall. "You see, I can usually tell when people are lying to me. So we can do this the easy way or the hard way. I'm not leaving here until you give me something."

She moves to grab his arm, but he starts screaming before she even has a chance to make contact. "Okay! I'll talk!"

She smirks. "So you do have something?" _Thank God for that_ , she thinks. She honestly didn't know whether he would know anything or not. She just thought she'd try scaring him to see if he did.

Jacob nods. He looks over her shoulder to make sure the door is completely closed. "Do you think you were followed?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure," she snaps, irritated. She was extra cautious on her way over to make sure she wasn't followed.

He walks past her and turns on his small TV, turning the volume up as loud as it will go. Quinn gives him a look. _Really?_ "Just to be safe," he says and then lowers his voice. "Okay look, I got a phone call a few days ago. It was blocked, but I tried tracing it. I came up with nothing."

Quinn pauses. "A few days ago?"

Jacob nods. "They didn't sound familiar, but—"

"You think they were using a voice changer?" Quinn says.

His expression becomes puzzled. "Yeah… How did you know?"

Quinn smoothly deflects the question. "What did they say?"

"I've still been trying to find them, like I told you. And they said that they knew what I was up to and that they also knew I talked to you."

She sucks in a breath, but forces the feeling of dread from showing on her face. How could they have known? Unless she was being watched…

"They threatened me and told me to stop investigating. They said they have proof of me doing illegal things and would turn me in."

"What kind of illegal things?" she asks suspiciously.

"Hacking," he says hesitantly. "They knew that I was trying to hack into some email accounts."

"Whose accounts?"

"The people on that list I gave you," he says. "I think they were scared it would get me closer to finding them."

"How did they know what you were doing?" This isn't adding up.

"I don't know!" he exclaims.

Quinn shakes her head. Once again, she's getting nowhere. "And what did you say?"

"I said that I'd stop. I can't go to jail…"

She sighs. "Clearly you're getting close if they felt threatened by you," Quinn says.

Jacob thinks about it and nods. "I guess you're right."

"So you keep looking."

"But—"

"That's not a request. You're doing it," she barks. Maybe if Jacob keeps digging around, their person will become more and more nervous to the point where they could slip and give something away. She's counting on it.

"There's something else," Jacob says.

"What is it?"

"They didn't call until I started hacking into Finn Hudson's email."

She blinks. "Finn?" He nods. "Do you think he has something to do with this?"

"Absolutely," Jacob says. "I've never liked him."

She has to take this with a grain of salt. After all, Israel probably just holds resentment towards Finn for dating Rachel back in high school. But still, this doesn't help Finn's case.

"Alright," is all she says.

He frowns. "Alright?"

She turns to leave. "Just remember to do what I say. And don't keep anything from me again, or I _will_ find out. You got it?"

He nods rapidly. "Got it."

"And stay away from Rachel," she says over her shoulder to remind him of her previous threat.

* * *

Rachel pouts as she checks her phone once more. She then tosses it into her bag as she walks alongside Kurt on the sidewalk. They stop in front of the building where Sue's office is located.

"Oh my God," her best friend groans as he rubs his temple. "Just talk to her. You're being such a girl right now."

"Am not," she says defensively. Truthfully, she's too nervous after last night to be the one to say something first. Kurt's right, she is _such_ a girl. She's never been like this with someone before. So why now?

She blames Quinn.

"You know what, fine," she grumbles and takes her phone out once more.

 **Rachel: I think that the audition went okay.**

She presses send before she can consider anything else, like adding 'I miss you' or 'Would you like to make out later?'

"Was that so hard?" Kurt asks with a smile.

She sighs. "No. I don't know what's wrong with me."

"I think you just like this one a lot. It happens."

She exhales. "I know." She glances around in an attempt to change the subject. "Where the hell is Schuester?"

Kurt groans. "Any moment spent without him shouldn't be taken for granted." He rolls his eyes when they see Will coming out of the entrance of the building. "And the moment is over."

"Hey," Will says as he approaches them. He has his phone in his hand and he frowns as he types away on it. Without glancing up at them, he says, "Sue said she'll let us know if she hears anything. And she hopes that you weren't sloppy."

"That's all she said?" Rachel asks.

"Surprisingly yes. I guess she was in a good mood today."

Rachel nods in agreement. "Anything else on the agenda for today?"

"We still need to find you a dress for this weekend," Kurt says. He has the same glint in his eye that he usually has whenever the topic of shopping comes up.

"This weekend?" Rachel squeaks. She had completely forgotten about the benefit that Will had gotten her an invitation to. She wasn't particularly thrilled about going, but a lot of big wigs in the industry would be attending and he thought it would be a good way for them to network.

"Right," Will says. "You both do that. I have some errands to run."

Kurt does a subtle fist pump and links his arm with Rachel's as he begins dragging her away. "Rodeo Drive, here I come."

A couple of hours later, after Rachel's tried on what seems like dozens of different dresses, she stalks out of the dressing room of one of the stores and pouts at Kurt. "I don't like the shoulders on this one."

"Hmm, they do seem a little puffy," Kurt says as he scratches his chin. "Try the black one on again."

"Kurt!" she stomps her foot. "We've already seen what I look like in that one. Now just help me pick one already!"

"You were the one that enlisted my help for this."

"Did not! You drug me out here."

He waves her off with a flick of the wrist. "Whatever. Go change out of that so we can go to the next store."

She sighs and trudges back to the dressing room. She should've known this would take all day. Not that she had any other real plans, but still.

It could always be worse, she tells herself, like spending the day with Will instead. And she really does need to find a dress, so it's best to get this out of the way now.

When she puts her normal clothes back on and starts hanging the dress back up, she hears a buzz coming from her purse. She drops the dress to the floor and snatches her bag up. She beams when she sees that Quinn finally replied to her.

 **Quinn: I'm sure you were amazing. Do you know when you're supposed to hear back?**

Rachel takes a breath and begins typing her reply when two more messages come in.

 **Quinn: And I'm sorry it took me so long to respond. I've been busy today.**

 **Quinn: I miss you by the way.**

She grins like a dork to herself as she rereads that last one over. She's happy to know she's not the only one.

A knock at the door startles her. "Rachel? What's taking so long?" Kurt asks.

"Sorry!" she calls out and picks the dress up from the floor and scurries out of the small room. "I'll just put this back and then we can go," she says as she walks past him.

He watches her with a frown. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah," she says with a smile. She comes back and takes hold of his hand before marching out of the store. Once outside, she pulls her sunglasses down over her face, smile still intact.

"I take it you finally heard back from Quinn," Kurt says with a smirk.

"Mhmm!" Rachel hums as they walk to the next store, in a much better mood than she was before.

When they walk inside, one of the sales associates asks, "Can I help you find something?"

"No thanks. I think we can manage," Kurt tells the woman as he follows Rachel to one end of the store.

After six more dresses, Rachel finally finds one that she's more than pleased with as she looks over herself in the mirror. And she seems to have Kurt's approval too, if the way his eyes widen when she exits the dressing room is any indication.

"Wow," he says. "You look absolutely stunning. I'm actually a little jealous."

She chuckles and turns to look over her shoulder into the mirror. "I really like this one."

Kurt nods in agreement. "It'll go great with those Prada heels. And I'm thinking have your hair down, and swept over one shoulder, with a smoky eye look," he spews the words out at an alarming rate. "And you already have the clutch to match!" he gasps. "It's perfect!"

Rachel laughs. "I'll leave the hair and makeup to you."

Kurt smiles as he continues to stare at her. "It's too bad Quinn can't see you like this."

She looks back at him and clears her throat. "Well, Will did say the invitation was good for four people…"

"Rachel, are you serious?"

She shrugs. "It's just a thought."

"You want to bring Quinn to a public event as your date?"

"Not as my date exactly," Rachel says. "But what's the harm in having her accompany me just like you guys are?"

"The harm is Schuester will throw the biggest fit known to mankind," Kurt deadpans. "You know, the one where that vein pops out on his forehead?"

"He doesn't have to know," Rachel says.

"How can he not know when he's going to be there?"

"I mean just don't tell him until we arrive. You can make sure to have different cars pick us up, right?" Kurt nods skeptically. "And it's not like he can cause a scene while we're actually there. You know how he is about his image."

"True," Kurt says. "I don't know, Rachel. There's just too much that can go wrong with this."

"I know that," she says. "But maybe this can be one of those baby steps we were talking about, remember?"

"But this is a _big_ step."

"No one is going to be concerned about who Quinn is if we go as a group," Rachel says. "Please, Kurt. Just have my back on this one?"

He rolls his eyes. "I have your back every time."

"And that's one of the many reasons why I love you."

"Fine. I'll arrange everything so Schuester won't know until we're there. And I'll make sure Quinn is on the list," he says. "But I can't promise you what Will's going to do after that."

"Thank you!" she squeals as she wraps her arms around his neck.

"Hang on," Kurt says as he pries her off. "This is all just assuming that Quinn will actually say yes to going."

Rachel frowns. She hadn't considered that. "Damn it."

Kurt nudges her playfully. "Relax. I think that girl would do just about anything you ask."

She blushes. "Maybe." She supposes she'll find out…

"Anyway, let's pay for this dress and get out of here," Kurt says.

Rachel nods, her mind still reeling over how she's going to ask Quinn.

* * *

Quinn stuffs her hands into her coat pockets as she carefully paces down the sidewalk. She's in the middle of downtown, where she's closely following Finn Hudson, who's been walking for some time now. She followed him in her car from his apartment all the way to a parking garage. He left his car there and she's been following him on foot for about five blocks now.

She makes sure to keep her distance, leaving about twenty feet in between them. He hasn't noticed her, the crowd of people also walking around them makes it easier for her to go unnoticed.

She's been tailing him all day, and the scowl hasn't left her face once. As soon as she left Jacob Ben Israel's apartment, she went straight to the tire shop Finn works at just to observe him. She was only there for twenty minutes before he stormed out of the place angrily and got in his truck and took off.

She spent hours outside of his apartment waiting for literally anything to happen. For someone to show up, or for him to go somewhere. But she finally got her wish when he left not long after it got dark.

That's how she ended up here. She has no idea where he's headed. But she's about to find out.

As they go further down the street and away from the heart of downtown, there's less people passing by. Then suddenly, as if sensing he's being followed, Finn stops and turns around. Quinn pauses for a moment, but then keeps walking as if she doesn't see him and is minding her own business.

"Quinn?" Finn says. "Quinn Fabray?"

She lifts an eyebrow and decides to buck up and walks right to him. "I'm surprised you remember my name," she says in a condescending tone that she can't control. She's pissed and she wants to get to the bottom of this. And the fact that he can recall her name with no issue is a big red flag to her. Maybe he's not as dull as he makes himself out to be.

His demeanor shifts to defensive and a scowl adorns his face. "Are you following me?" he asks.

She shrugs. "It's a nice night for a walk, don't you think?"

He doesn't bite. "Why are you following me?"

Quinn levels his glare. _He knows why._ "Where are you headed?"

"To a friend's."

"A friend?"

Finn crosses his arms and squares his shoulders. He's trying to intimidate her, she thinks to herself. "Is there something I can help you with?"

"You seem tense compared to the last time I saw you," Quinn says. "Is something going on?"

"Something like what?"

"You tell me."

He clenches his jaw. "Look, you already talked to me. I'm not the person that's trying to hurt Rachel. So can you just leave me alone?"

Quinn smirks at his slip-up. She knows Rachel never told him about the incidents and the actress also swore Tina to secrecy. "So you _do_ know about what's going on."

Finn falters for a moment. He then seethes. "I don't have to talk to you about anything. And if you come to me again, or you keep following me, I'm going to the police."

"Fine." Quinn steps closer and peers up at him with malice laced in her voice. "But just know that I'm onto you."

He narrows his eyes. And without another word, turns and continues stalking down the sidewalk. Quinn briefly considers continuing to follow him for the night, but she knows that he can't be dumb enough to try something after their encounter. So with a sigh, she turns in the opposite direction.

When she gets to her car, her phone begins ringing in her pocket. She frowns and pulls it out to see Kurt calling. "Hello?" she answers.

"Since Rachel is being Rachel about this, I thought I'd save everyone the trouble and just ask you already," Kurt's voice rings from the other end. "So Quinn, would you—"

"Kurt, give me that phone!" Rachel can be heard shrieking. There's some rustling before the line goes silent. Quinn pulls it away from her ear in amusement.

When she gets inside her car, her phone goes off with a new message.

 **Rachel: Ignore Kurt. He's just trying to mess with me.**

Another message comes in right after.

 **Rachel: Can I come over?**

She smiles to herself. It looks like her night is going to get a whole lot better.

* * *

Quinn hastily shoves her key into her apartment door and pushes inside. "Britt, sorry that this is last minute but Rachel is—" She stops when she sees the brunette in question standing next to Brittany, smiling at her wryly. "Oh."

"Brittany let me in," Rachel says.

Quinn scratches the back of her neck. "Were you waiting long?"

"Not at all. I just got here."

"Good." Quinn nods and clears her throat.

Brittany crosses her arms as she looks back and forth between the two. "I'm still in the room, by the way."

"Sorry," Rachel says sheepishly while Quinn shakes her head in embarrassment. "I actually need to talk to Quinn about something."

"Britt, do you mind?" Quinn says with a pleading look to her roommate.

Brittany huffs. "I guess not. Can I borrow your car?"

Quinn frowns. "Um, sure."

She's a little startled when her keys are suddenly snatched out of her hand and Brittany is out the door and saying, "I'll be back later!"

Quinn jumps a little at the loud sound of the door slamming. Now that they're both alone, she shifts nervously. "So your audition went well?" She turns to take off her coat. She's not sure what's acceptable behavior between them now, so she decides to play it safe.

Rachel notices this and rolls her eyes while Quinn's back is turned. "I think it did."

Quinn smiles at her. "You can tell me more about it later if you want. You said you have to talk to me about something?"

Rachel takes a shaky breath. "Right."

"Kurt said you have something to ask me?"

She tries to hide her blush with a look of annoyance at the mention of Kurt. "Like I said, just ignore him."

Quinn frowns at the deflection of her question. She chooses to remain silent about it and turns to run a hand through her hair. She lets out a long sigh. She doesn't want to scare Rachel, but she needs to be up to date with her own case.

"What's wrong?" Rachel asks.

Quinn looks back up at her. "You should sit down," she says.

Whatever the blonde has to say, it's not good news. She shakes her head and steps closer. "Just tell me."

"So last night I got a phone call," Quinn says. "It was _them_ ," she says pointedly.

Rachel's heart drops. The questions are soon firing out. "They called you? What did they say? Did you find out who it is?"

Quinn shakes her head. "I couldn't tell who it was, Rach. They were using some kind of voice changer."

"Damn," Rachel mutters. "You couldn't trace the call?"

"No," Quinn says disappointedly. She brings a hand up to pinch the bridge of her nose in frustration.

"What did they say?" Rachel presses.

"They said that I need to walk away from the case or I'm going to regret becoming involved."

"What do they mean you're going to regret it?"

Quinn shrugs her shoulders. "I have no idea."

Rachel is quiet for a moment. She crosses her arms and softly says, "Quinn, I think that I should get someone else to take this case. Either another private investigator, or maybe the police will actually help me this time."

Quinn frowns. "You don't think I'm competent enough for this?"

"No!" Rachel says quickly. "Of course I don't think that. I just don't want anything bad to happen to you."

"And I don't want anything to happen to _you_."

Despite herself, a small smile forms on Rachel's face. She leans forward and firmly presses her lips against Quinn's for a fleeting moment.

Slightly dazed after the unexpected kiss, Quinn arches an eyebrow. "Is this your way of changing the subject?"

Rachel shakes her head and wraps her arms around Quinn's neck. "No. I just felt like doing it."

Her heart beating faster, Quinn pulls her in closer and stares down at her. "I'm not dropping your case."

"Will you at least consider it?"

"No."

"Quinn—"

It's Quinn's turn to interrupt Rachel. She leans forward for a more heated kiss than before and doesn't relent. She feels Rachel's hands flex against her shoulders before pulling her impossibly closer. Their lips continue moving together languidly.

Quinn releases a light whimper when she finds herself being pushed back towards the couch. Rachel pulls away just long enough to push her down onto it and straddle her before claiming her lips again.

As quickly as she can, Quinn reaches between them and rushes through the task of unbuttoning Rachel's coat. Distracted by the softest pair of lips she's ever felt, she fumbles with her hands during the task and lets out an irritated groan.

Rachel pushes herself up and finishes unbuttoning the annoying garment before shrugging it off her shoulders and letting it drop to the floor. Her breath hitches when she's suddenly lifted and gently laid on her back.

Quinn descends on her, picking up right where they left off. Rachel moans because Quinn's mouth is like magic on hers. She could do this forever.

She finds herself grabbing the hem of the blonde's shirt and breaking away from their kiss. "Are we doing this?" she asks breathlessly. Oh, how she wants to do this.

Quinn takes a moment to catch her breath as she finally processes the position she's in… on top of Rachel and ready to go at it like there's no tomorrow. She blushes and pushes herself up. "Sorry. I guess I got carried away."

Rachel takes that as a no and quickly sits up. "But I don't mind. I want to do this." She starts mentally berating herself for opening her big mouth in the first place and potentially ruining her chances of having some mind-blowing sex tonight.

"So do I," Quinn says as she scoots away. "But you don't think this is too fast?"

Rachel rolls her eyes. "You slept with a girl on the first date and now you're worried about going too fast?"

Quinn huffs. "That was different." She moves closer to Rachel and presses a gentle kiss against her cheek. " _You're_ different. And I want to do things right for once."

Only Quinn can make her go from feeling like a cat in heat to a puddle of mush. Rachel smiles. "I'm different?"

"Well yeah," Quinn says. "I really like you."

Rachel smiles even wider. "I really like you too."

Quinn leans her face in close once again and whispers, "Good," then leaves one more soft kiss against her mouth. "And besides, I would like to go on at least one date with you before we go that far."

At the sudden reminder of why she even came here in the first place, Rachel inhales sharply. "Oh."

Quinn furrows her brow. "What's wrong?" She's instantly wondering if she said the wrong thing. Maybe going out on an actual date is completely off the table with Rachel's career.

"Nothing. I just remembered something." Rachel clears her throat nervously. "There's actually something I wanted to ask you."

"Okay?"

"I was—" she pauses to take a breath. "I was wondering if you would come with me to this thing that I have to attend."

Quinn smiles. "A thing?"

"Yes." Rachel's too nervous to even remember what exactly the thing is called. She just wants Quinn to say yes. "It's a benefit for cancer research. A lot of important people are going to be there and Will thought it would be a good chance to network." She's rambling now.

"And you want me to be your date?"

"Unofficial date," Rachel blurts before backtracking, "I mean, we're going to have our pictures taken a lot and obviously the press can't know about… us. But since we'll be there with Kurt and Will, I figured what's the harm?" She laughs nervously. "I wish I could be with you in public without having to worry about it. But this is the best I can do. For now."

Quinn leans back. "So you're asking me out on an unofficial date?"

"It's a date," Rachel says with a huff. "At least to you and me it will be."

"I see."

There still hasn't been a definitive answer from the blonde. Rachel feels herself panicking. "We can always go somewhere else afterwards. Just the two of us." She definitely has an idea or two about the things they can do alone. But she forces her mind out of the gutter because she needs Quinn to just say yes already.

A small smile forms on Quinn's face. "Okay."

Rachel couldn't fight her beam even if she tried. "Okay?"

"I'd love to. I know it's going to be hard for us to actually date. But I'll take what I can get."

"I want to do this right, too," Rachel says softly. "I guess this is a start."

Quinn leans in to kiss her, but there's a sudden pounding at the door that causes them both to jump.

"Quinn, I'm back! Are you guys done with your sweet lady kisses yet? I chugged a Big Gulp again and I need to pee!" Brittany yells from the other side. They both sigh.

"I should probably go," Rachel says sadly as she gets up.

Quinn follows and takes her hand. "I'll walk you out."

* * *

The camera lens quickly zooms in on the pair as they exit Quinn's apartment. Their hands immediately break apart before the picture is taken.

"Damn it," someone mutters. _Looks like Rachel's finally learning._

Getting pictures tonight isn't exactly part of the plan. But they'll take whatever opportunity they come across. And besides, they weren't expecting to see Rachel when they followed Quinn to her apartment.

 _Wonder what they were talking about…_

The two stop at Rachel's car. They exchange words briefly before embracing in a hug, a little too intimate to be seen as friendly. Rachel then gets in the car and drives away.

As they watch Quinn retreat back to her apartment, they feel their anger building up again with the meddling blonde. She's getting dangerously close to ruining everything, and she's clearly not taking their threat seriously. It's time to show her exactly how serious they are.

 _My move, Fabray._

* * *

 **A/N:** I can't promise exactly when the next update will be, but know that I'm going to step it up from now on so you all won't have to wait so long again.

Be sure to let me know what you think of the chapter and thank you for reading!


	9. Chapter 9

**Title:** Right Behind You

 **Rating:** M for later chapters

 **Summary:** Rachel Berry is trying to make a name for herself as an actress in Hollywood, but someone is trying to ruin her life and make sure that doesn't happen. A private investigator named Quinn Fabray somehow becomes involved in the whole thing and gets more than she bargained for. But will she be able to help Rachel?

 **Warnings:** None for this chapter.

* * *

Quinn fixes her cleavage for the hundredth time as she glances down at herself with a frown. She looks up at her roommate and asks, "Are you sure this looks okay, Britt?"

Brittany nods and makes an 'okay' sign with her hand. "Trust me, you look great." She bats Quinn's hands away from herself. "And leave your boobs alone! They look awesome right now."

Quinn bites her lip and keeps her hands down because she knows she'll just start adjusting the dress again. "I'm nervous," she says.

"I know. But don't worry. As long as you stop trying to fix the dress and leave," Brittany tucks the price tag into the side of the dress, "this alone, you'll be fine."

Quinn laughs to herself. This is five hundred dollars that she can't afford to lose. But when she went out looking for a dress with Brittany earlier, her roommate swore that this was the one. And she also swore that it would get her in between Rachel's legs by the end of the night with no problem…

She blushes at the thought. She's not expecting things to go that far tonight, but she can't help but hope they will.

"You have that look again," Brittany says as she fixes Quinn's hair back into place.

Quinn narrows her eyes. "What look?"

"The look you have when you're thinking about getting your freak on with Rachel."

"Get my freak on? I think you're spending too much time with Santana."

Brittany simply ignores her. "Perfect," she says when she stands back to inspect her work. "You're so getting laid tonight."

Quinn's cheeks heat up, but she's luckily saved by a knock on the door. "That must be the driver."

"Ooh! You get a driver?" Brittany squeals excitedly. "Sometimes Santana picks me up in a squad car."

Quinn opens the door and smiles at the older man. "Hello."

"Ms. Fabray?" he asks. She nods. "I'll be downstairs whenever you're ready," he says cordially before turning to leave.

"Where's Rachel?" Brittany asks with a frown.

"She said I was getting picked up first because she takes forever getting ready."

"She probably just wants to look extra pretty for you tonight."

Quinn chuckles. "Bye, Britt."

"Bye! Good luck!"

* * *

Rachel is just finishing applying her mascara when the doorbell rings. "Shit!" she exclaims as she tosses the mascara onto the counter and grabs a tube of lipstick. She quickly glides it over her lips.

The doorbell rings again. "Just a minute!" she yells. She thinks it's probably the same impatient driver as last time.

She bolts out of the bathroom and grabs her clutch on the way to the front door. She throws it open and glances at the annoyed driver. "Did you pick up Quinn?"

"Ms. Fabray is waiting in the car."

She nods and walks past him before he rushes behind her. She gets to the car and pauses as he opens the door for her.

She was not prepared for this moment.

"Hi," Quinn says with the most radiant smile. "You look beautiful."

Rachel nearly stumbles over herself as she scoots into her seat. "No, _you_ look… wow," is all she can think to say.

Quinn blushes with a small smile. Before she can say anything else, the driver gets in and the car is soon moving. She sighs and looks back at Rachel.

"Thank you for coming," Rachel says softly as she reaches over and takes one of Quinn's hands in her lap. At the blonde's hesitant look at the driver, she adds, "Don't worry about him."

Quinn lets out a breath. "Thank you for inviting me."

"It might get a little boring," Rachel says jokingly.

"I doubt that," Quinn says. It's never boring with Rachel around.

"We can always leave when I'm finished making the rounds with Will," Rachel offers.

Quinn shrugs. She doesn't want to interfere with Rachel's career. "I don't mind staying as long as you need to." She shudders a bit when Rachel's hand slowly caresses up and down her arm.

"I just want to have some alone time with you tonight," Rachel says in a low, sultry voice.

Quinn feels her heart pounding in her chest in excitement. She tells herself to be cool. "I suppose I can make time for you," she teases.

"I'll be sure to make it worth your while," Rachel counters.

"I'll definitely think about it."

"That's all I ask."

Quinn smiles and takes her hand once again before looking ahead. Rachel takes the opportunity to rest her head on her shoulder. She knows that she should enjoy this while she can because they won't get to be like this once they're there.

The moment doesn't last long enough because their car is soon pulling up to their destination. They reluctantly separate before the door opens and they're helped out by one of the event ushers. Rachel is first out of the car. She sees Will and Kurt outside clad in their tuxedos among the small crowd a short distance away.

They spot her and she steels herself, gauging Will's reaction. As soon as Quinn steps out, his expression turns into confusion, then quickly transitions to anger as he narrows his eyes at Rachel.

She holds back from rolling her own and nudges Quinn to follow her towards them. Will marches to meet them halfway. Kurt has a worried look and shakes his head at Rachel.

"What the hell is this?" Will growls as soon as he reaches them. He gestures to Quinn with his eyes still trained on Rachel.

"What does it look like? It's Quinn."

"Don't be a smart-ass."

"I invited her," Rachel answers, annoyed.

"And you didn't think to consult with me first and would rather have me blind-sided?" he asks, raising his voice.

Quinn shifts uncomfortably. She hates that her mere presence caused this argument between Rachel and her manager, even though they probably argue all the time. She looks at Kurt and silently begs him with her eyes to do something.

Luckily, he has her back. "Might I remind you both that we are in public," he says with a fake laugh. "Oh look, I think that's the mayor over there." He grins in the distance and lightly waves his hand.

Will clenches his jaw, but nods nonetheless. "We'll talk about this later."

The four of them walk up the large staircase and go inside. Cameras begin flashing as soon as they step in, so all but Rachel move aside to get out of the shots.

The brunette places a hand on her hip and gives a beaming smile as the photographers continuously snap her picture. _She's a natural,_ Quinn thinks.

When she's finally done, Rachel moves towards them, smile still intact. "Let's get this over with," she says to Will. When he nods, she turns to follow her manager, making sure to graze Quinn's hand with her own as she passes by. The two begin weaving through the dense crowd.

"And then there were two," Kurt says. He flags down one of the workers walking by with a tray of champagne-filled flutes and takes one for him and one for Quinn.

"Thanks," she says as she takes it. "So, this is the first time I've been to one of these." She takes a look around and sees many familiar faces, mostly from the movies and on TV. She spots Sam Evans, who is talking to another man but seems to be ignoring him as he has his sights set directly on… Rachel. Quinn sighs to herself.

"They're not usually eventful," Kurt says. "Tonight should be no different."

Quinn nods as she continues observing the large room. She chokes on her drink when she sees Kitty Wilde of all people.

Kurt frowns and pats her on her back as she catches her breath. "You okay?"

Quinn immediately turns to face the other direction. Fortunately, Kitty seemed deep into conversation with another man and didn't see her. "What's Kitty doing here?" she squeaks.

Kurt glances around until he spots her and says, "Oh, Kitty Wilde? Her agency sponsors these things all the time."

Quinn decides she should've gotten her hands on a guest list before she agreed to come. Her role in Rachel's case is at risk of being compromised. Things can also get worse if—

"Mercedes!" Kurt says excitedly. Quinn whips her head around to see Mercedes Jones walking in with her entourage.

"I went to high school with her," Kurt says to her with a smile. "I'm going to go say hi."

Quinn nods and starts walking away as fast as she can without being noticed. She's relieved to see people coming in and out of a door on the other side of the room that leads to a balcony.

Once she's outside, she quickly scans the crowd she finds out there. It's about as packed as it is inside, but she doesn't see anyone that she has to hide from at least. She makes her way to the railing and sighs as she leans against it.

She knows she'll have to go back in to find Rachel or Kurt at some point. But for now she'll just enjoy the cool night air. She downs the rest of her champagne and hands her glass to a waiter passing by. _At least the drinks are free._

She begins wondering if there's also free food when she's caught off guard by an incredibly handsome man approaching her.

"Hello," he says. "I'm Jesse—"

"St. James," Quinn finishes as she stretches her hand out to him. "I know who you are."

A confident smile appears on his face as he takes her hand. "Really now?"

She nods. "Doesn't everyone?" Jesse St. James was only one of the biggest stars of Hollywood. Not only was he the lead of a few action franchises, he also had several award nominations under his belt. She notes the huge man standing near them and assumes it's a bodyguard.

The answer seems to please him as his smirk becomes even cockier. He doesn't let go of her hand. "And you are?"

"Quinn," she answers and pulls her hand away as politely as she can.

"What a beautiful name. You know, Quinn, I saw you inside and I was hoping to get a chance to talk to you."

"Were you?"

"Oh yes. Everyone was looking at Rachel Berry while I was too busy admiring you." He tilts his head curiously. "Are you in the business?"

She shakes her head. "No."

"And how exactly are you associated with Rachel?"

"I work for her." It was technically true.

"An assistant? Well that's a shame. A face like yours is meant for the movies."

It was ridiculously corny, but Quinn finds herself blushing anyway. "Thank you."

She notices Jesse's grin. He seems to think that his charm is working. But before he can say more, Kurt suddenly appears at her side. "Hello, Jesse."

Jesse smiles cordially at Kurt. "Hello…" he trails off.

"Kurt Hummel," Kurt answers. "We've met before a few times."

"Of course. I remember," Jesse says. "I'm terrible with names, but I never forget a face." He throws a wink at Quinn.

"I really hate to interrupt, but I need to have a word with Quinn," Kurt says.

Jesse seems momentarily disappointed, but his handsome smile soon returns. "It was a pleasure meeting you, Quinn. I'm sure we'll run into each other again." He takes her hand again and brings it up to his mouth and leaves a chaste kiss. Quinn is too stunned to react. Jesse then nods at Kurt and leaves.

"Words cannot describe how jealous I am that Jesse St. James just kissed some part of your body," Kurt says as he watches him go.

Quinn exhales the breath she was holding. "Don't tell Rachel," she says quickly.

Kurt laughs loudly. "Relax, I've seen plenty of girls fall for his act. It's a good thing I rescued you when I did, otherwise you would've been going home with him tonight instead of Rachel."

"Would not have!" she says defensively.

"But in all seriousness, you should avoid him. There's a reason they call him the man-whore king of the west coast."

Quinn frowns. "They call him that?" She shakes her head. "It doesn't matter. I don't even like men. And I'm here with Rachel anyway." She looks around but Rachel's nowhere in sight. She's likely inside somewhere. "Sort of."

Kurt follows her train of thought. "I don't think Rachel really thought this whole thing through. But I guess she's trying. That's more than I can say for anyone else she's dated." Quinn smiles at his words. "She likes you a lot, you know."

"And I really like her."

"Normally this would be the part where I give you the obligatory 'don't hurt my best friend' speech, but your feelings seem genuine." He gives her a serious look. "But please be careful. We both know that Rachel has a lot going on right now."

She nods. "I know."

"And I may not know you that well, but Rachel trusts you, so I'm going to trust you too."

"And I'll try my best not to screw that up."

"Screw what up?" Rachel finally joins them.

Quinn sputters for a moment. "Nothing!"

Kurt rolls his eyes. "Were you finally able to ditch Will?"

Rachel looks over her shoulder. "For now."

"And Sam Evans?"

She glares at him and glances at Quinn. "I reminded him for the millionth time that it's never going to happen."

"I'm sure he's getting the hint." Kurt nods his head with his gaze directed beyond them. Rachel turns to see Sam looking over at them before quickly glancing away once she sees him and starts talking to someone else. Quinn stifles a laugh.

"Anyway," Kurt begins, "Make any charitable donations tonight?"

Rachel sighs. "My bank account is taking a hit. At least this is for a good cause."

Kurt nods. "This thing actually isn't so bad."

Rachel looks at Quinn and says, "I'm sorry I haven't been around much tonight."

"Don't even worry about it," Quinn assures her.

"I'm making it up to you later." Rachel lightly touches her shoulder.

"Ahem."

"Jesus!" Rachel spins around to find Will standing right behind her. "Stop sneaking up on me like that!"

Will sighs. "Alright, it looks like no one suspects anything about you and…" he looks at Quinn, "so let's just keep it that way."

Rachel rolls her eyes. "Why would they? You're just being overly paranoid like always."

"Well maybe you'll give me a heads up the next time you pull something like this," he snaps back. Their argument turns into heated whispers.

"Why? Just so you can forbid me from doing something that I want for once? I'm not a child, Schuester!"

"Then stop acting like one!"

"This isn't how I wanted the night to go," Quinn mutters to Kurt.

He crosses his arms. "You and me both."

A waiter frowns as he passes Rachel in the middle of her argument and stops in front of Quinn. "Quinn?" he asks.

She tilts her head, perplexed. "Yes?"

He hands her a flute of champagne and says, "This is for you," before walking off. Quinn stares at the champagne in confusion.

Rachel shushes Will and says, "What's that for?"

Quinn shrugs. "I don't know. I didn't order this."

"It's probably from Jesse," Kurt pipes up.

Quinn groans. _Here we go…_

"St. James?" Rachel nearly shrieks.

He nods. "He was putting all of his signature moves on Quinn earlier," he says, clearly enjoying how peeved Rachel looks right now.

Rachel's eyes dart around the crowd. "I'm going to kill him."

"Rachel, seriously?" Quinn says. "It's not a big deal."

"Yeah, and don't forget about your last run-in with him," Kurt adds.

She whirls around to face him. "He had the audacity to tell me to my face that I'm not convincing in any of my roles. And then he asked me which community college I took acting classes at," Rachel says, irritated at the memory. "I _had_ to set him straight!"

"Okay, that's enough," Will interrupts. "You need to go back inside and—"

"Stop telling me what to do!"

They start going at it again and Quinn sighs at the same time as Kurt. She looks at him and holds up the glass and says, "I'm going to take this back to the bar. If it's from Jesse, then I probably shouldn't accept it."

"Don't bother," Kurt says as he takes it from her. "Who knows how many drinks I'm going to need tonight."

Quinn nods to herself because he has a point. She can't stand being around Will for very long and can only imagine how horrible it is to be with him all day every day. She decides to move somewhere else because all of the bickering is giving her a headache.

But before she takes a step to leave, the sound of glass breaking echoes in her ear and she watches in horror as Kurt falls to the ground, desperately gasping for air.

"Kurt!" Rachel screams. All three of them are kneeling over him in an instant.

"Call EMS," Quinn instructs Will as everyone else outside quickly crowds around them to see what's going on. "And get everyone out of the way so he can be carried out."

Will stands and whips his phone out and begins ushering people to move aside. Kurt is flailing on the ground while grasping at his neck.

"I…. can't…. breathe," he wheezes.

Quinn rips his bow tie off and tosses it to the side. His face is a pale blue and his eyes are turning bloodshot red.

"Kurt!" Sam Evans suddenly appears and kneels down with them while Quinn wishes he would just get out of the way. "What happened?"

Out of the corner of her eye, she sees the broken glass on the floor and feels her heart drop. Something was in the drink…

"Kurt, just hold on. Help is on the way," she says as she holds him down by the shoulder to keep him from thrashing around. She hears distant sirens growing closer. "See? They're almost here. I need you to try and stay still, okay?"

Nearly everyone at the event is gathered around them watching helplessly, but Quinn ignores them. She has to make sure that Kurt stays conscious until help gets there.

She notices another pair of hands are also trying to hold him down and glances up to see Rachel's tear-stricken face looking between her best friend and Quinn.

"It's going to be okay," Quinn tells her.

Kurt isn't struggling as much as he was before and she knows he's close to passing out. She squeezes her eyes shut for a moment and takes a deep breath.

 _It's going to be okay._

* * *

The ambulance had arrived within minutes of Will's phone call. Kurt was carried out faster than Quinn was expecting before her and Rachel ran to the front of the building where Will was waiting in a car. They then trailed the ambulance to the hospital.

They've been in the waiting room for merely an hour, which feels like a lifetime to them, and have yet to hear any word on his condition. Will has been on the phone the whole time trying to do damage control. There were even two police officers guarding the door because of news reporters trying to get into the building to talk to Rachel.

The whole thing has been a circus unlike anything Quinn has ever seen before. She's still trying to wrap her head around the fact that someone tried to poison her. Tried to _kill_ her. And now Kurt has to suffer because of her and the guilt weighs more on her than anything else. How could she live with herself if Rachel lost someone she was so close with because of her?

"Rachel, it's going to be okay."

Quinn can't help but roll her eyes. Sam Evans was there with them. All he was doing was getting on her nerves and she's on the verge of dragging him out either by his collar or by his stupid floppy hair.

His hand is placed awkwardly on Rachel's shoulder in an attempt to keep her from pacing around the room. She doesn't seem to even notice him.

She had finally managed to stop crying, but her eyes are still red and full of worry. "What's taking them so long?" she says.

"They said the doctor would come out as soon as he had news," Sam offers. "We just have to wait for now."

Quinn walks over and takes her hand. "Hey," she says softly when Rachel looks at her. "They got to him just in time. I'm sure Kurt's going to be okay." She prays that she's right on this one.

Fresh tears well up in Rachel's eyes as she throws her arms around Quinn's neck and cries into her shoulder. Quinn returns the embrace and soothingly runs a hand up and down her back.

"I'm sorry," she whispers because this is all her fault. Rachel just continues crying.

Quinn looks up to Sam staring at her. She can tell by his expression that he's jealous that Rachel is seeking comfort from her. She instinctively raises a challenging eyebrow at him.

He narrows his own eyes. "Who are you, exactly?"

Before she can tell him to fuck off, the door swings open and a familiar voice barks out, "Fabray!"

She squeezes her eyes shut and sighs to herself. _You've got to be kidding me._ Reluctantly releasing a confused Rachel, she turns around and says, "What the hell are you doing here?"

Smirking, Santana pulls her badge out and addresses everyone else in the room. "Detective Lopez. I'm here to investigate tonight's incident and need to ask all of you some questions. But first," her eyes land back on Quinn, "I need to speak with Ms. Fabray. _Alone_."

Santana marches out the door without another word. Quinn really didn't think this night could get any worse. And yet once again, she's proven wrong.

"Something you aren't telling us, Fabray?" Will asks. Sam nods in agreement and crosses his arms.

With a roll of her eyes, Quinn says, "We know each other. That's all." She looks back at Rachel. "I'll be back in a little while. Okay?"

Rachel nods as she wipes her eyes. "I'll let you know if there's any updates."

"Okay." Quinn's not sure who leans in first, but she soon finds her lips pressed against Rachel's for a brief moment. She hears Will huff angrily, and she doesn't have to look up to know that Sam is likely giving her a murderous glare.

She leaves the room to find Santana in the hallway, leaning against the wall with the same condescending smirk that Quinn has always hated. "I already gave a statement to the other officer," she says.

"And I already read it," Santana answers back. She pauses to look Quinn up and down. "Well aren't you all dressed up tonight. It's too bad your date couldn't end without an attempted murder."

"We're not dating," Quinn snaps.

"Oh please. Brittany told me you two are seeing each other."

Quinn sighs. She hopes that's all Brittany told her.

"I'm a little impressed that you managed to get into her pants even after your huge fuck-up."

"Are you just here to pry into my personal life, Santana? What I have with Rachel is none of your damn business."

"Look, I don't give two shits what you and Rachel Berry are doing behind closed doors. All I know is I got a call from the chief on my night off about someone nearly getting killed at a huge Hollywood party, come to find that your dumb ass is in the middle of the whole thing."

"Oh, I'm sorry that _your_ night was ruined."

"The chief is riding my ass, so I'm going to get to the bottom of this. You need to tell me what the hell's going on right now, Fabray."

Quinn clenches her teeth. She hates that she has to do this with Santana of all people. And before tonight, she would've told the other woman to go fuck herself before turning on her heel. But she has to swallow her pride and do this for Kurt. And for Rachel. "Someone's been harassing Rachel for years now and," she points to the door, "now they're taking things to a whole new level."

"Bullshit."

"What?"

"According to your statement, someone tried poisoning _you_. So clearly you were being targeted. Not Rachel. Not Kurt Hummel. You. And if I had to investigate every celebrity stalker claim there was, then I'd never get anything done. So who did you piss off this time?"

"Santana, I'm telling you the truth. I don't know who it is. I've been working on this case for Rachel for a while now and so far I haven't been able to find this asshole."

"And how are you so sure that it's even the same person?"

"Because they contacted me a few nights ago and threatened me to stop with the investigation or else."

Santana sighs in frustration and runs a hand through her hair. "How long has this been thing been going on for Rachel?"

"Like I said, for years."

"Then why hasn't she gone to the police yet?"

"She has," Quinn says in defense of Rachel. "But there's never been enough evidence for an investigation. I was the only one that was willing to help her."

Santana stares at her for a moment as she contemplates to herself. "Fine. I guess I'll humor your story. I'm coming by first thing in the morning and you're going to give me everything you have on this case. Do you have any idea who it is?"

"I have a couple leads, but nothing solid."

"Big fucking surprise," Santana mutters sarcastically as she fishes her ringing phone out of her pocket. She answers it. "What?" As she listens to the person on the other end, Quinn watches her face transform into a frown. "Are you sure?" She looks at Quinn for a second before exhaling. "Alright. Thanks."

"What is it?" Quinn asks as soon as she hangs up.

"I had my guys talk to the bartender and all of the wait staff to find out who sent that drink to you. The drink was left on the counter with a note instructing that it go out to you. The waiter thought the bartender got a special request, but the bartender swears he didn't. They don't know who left the note."

"Fuck!" This was just her luck. Things weren't going to be that easy. She looks back up at Santana. "You have to get a list of everyone that was there tonight."

"No shit, Sherlock."

"Will you let me see the note?"

"No."

Quinn throws her hands up in frustration. But before she has a chance to strangle Santana, Rachel rushes out into the hallway. "Quinn! He made it! They said he's going to be okay!" she exclaims gleefully.

All of Quinn's anger is quickly pushed aside by relief. "Oh, thank God."

"They're going to keep him for a few days to do some blood work. But they said we can come see him tomorrow." Rachel glances inside the room for a moment and huffs before looking at Quinn. "Will needs to talk to me. But I'll be right back!"

When Rachel disappears inside the room, Santana says, "Well at least he's not dead. That saves me from a lot of paperwork."

Quinn fights the urge to make a snarky comment. But Santana's sort of right because Kurt's alive and that's a lot less weight on her shoulders.

"I'll let you get back to your girlfriend," Santana says as she walks past her. "And don't forget, in the morning you're giving me everything you have on this thing."

Quinn's not looking forward to tomorrow at all. But maybe it just might bring her closer to solving this case.

* * *

 **A/N:** Thank you all for reading! Be sure to let me know what you thought of this chapter. I love hearing what you guys think :)

And before anyone starts to worry, I should mention that there will be no major character deaths in this story. I'm also open to PMs if you have other questions!


	10. Chapter 10

**Title:** Right Behind You

 **Rating:** M for later chapters

 **Summary:** Rachel Berry is trying to make a name for herself as an actress in Hollywood, but someone is trying to ruin her life and make sure that doesn't happen. A private investigator named Quinn Fabray somehow becomes involved in the whole thing and gets more than she bargained for. But will she be able to help Rachel?

 **Warnings:** None for this chapter.

* * *

Rachel is immediately aware of the silence. It's almost too quiet. There's no sign of the deep breathing that she became familiar with overnight.

She frowns and absently pats the space next to her only to realize it's empty. "Quinn?" She finally opens her eyes to confirm that she is in fact alone in the bed.

A sudden panic rushes over her and she jumps up and scurries out the bedroom.

"Good morning," the blonde says from the kitchen when she sees her. "I was just making some coffee." Her smile quickly fades when she sees Rachel's worried expression. "What's wrong?"

Rachel shakes her head. "Nothing."

"Are you sure?"

She nods. "Everything's fine." To prove it, she makes her way across the apartment and latches onto Quinn for a kiss.

Quinn wraps her arms around her waist and lets her lips linger for a little while longer before pulling away. She smiles.

"Good morning to you too," Rachel says.

"Did you sleep okay?"

"I did." She squeezes Quinn's shoulders. "Thank you for letting me stay over."

After last night's events, Rachel didn't want to be alone, so Quinn had offered to let her stay the night. They were both completely exhausted by the time they turned in, so nothing happened beyond cuddling. But still, it was perfect.

Quinn turns and hands her a mug of coffee. "I don't know how you take it, but there's—"

"This is fine," Rachel says as she takes a sip.

Quinn nods and takes a step back. Rachel notices that she looks tense and possibly anxious. "What's wrong?" she asks.

"I'm just nervous about seeing Kurt," Quinn answers. "He probably hates me right now."

"He doesn't hate you," Rachel says. "It wasn't your fault and he knows that."

Quinn just shrugs. "I just feel awful."

"So do I, but Kurt's okay. _You're_ okay. And that's all that matters."

"But what if next time—"

"There isn't going to be a next time!"

A door can be heard opening, silencing them. Brittany pops her head out of her bedroom and groggily says, "Can you guys keep it down? I'm trying to sleep in."

"Sorry, Britt," Quinn calls out. When the door closes, she turns back to Rachel, a slight smile adorning her face. "You know, them trying to kill me means that we must be getting close to finding out who they are."

"Let's hope that's the case," Rachel says. "Now stop putting thoughts of you and death in my head and let's go see how Kurt's doing."

* * *

Quinn's anxiety grows even worse as soon as they're at the hospital. She takes deep breaths as they venture down the hall to his room. She doesn't know how he's going when he sees her, but she's hoping Rachel is right and that it'll be okay.

"Are you sure you're okay to go in?" Rachel asks when they reach the door. When Quinn nods, giving her the affirmative, she knocks gently before opening it.

Kurt is by himself, silently gazing out the window with only the sound of the TV in the room. He turns his head when they come in and smiles. "I was wondering when you would show up."

Rachel returns the smile. "It's still early."

"I know. I was kidding." He looks at the blonde. "And hello to you."

"Hey, Kurt." Quinn takes a seat next to Rachel by the bed. "You look good."

"And I feel fine, which is what I keep telling the doctors. But they won't let me leave just yet."

"I'm sure it's just a precaution," Rachel says. "It's better to play it safe and make sure your health is at one-hundred percent before you leave."

Kurt rolls his eyes. "Whatever."

All three heads turn when they hear Rachel's name on the TV.

A news reporter stares at the screen. "And after the events that occurred last night, actress Rachel Berry's assistant is now in the hospital. Police say—" Quinn snatches the remote and turns it off.

"No, please, let me bask in my newfound fame as 'Rachel Berry's assistant'," Kurt says drolly.

Quinn sighs. "Kurt, I feel partially responsible that you're here in the first place. And I just want to say I'm sorry that you were brought into this mess."

He laughs. "I've been in this mess since day one." He looks at Rachel pointedly before looking back at Quinn. "And besides, it's not like you were the one that did this."

"I know, but—"

"No buts," he interjects. "The only person I have it out for now is the person that did this to me."

Quinn exhales slowly before nodding. "So do I."

"How's that coming along?" he asks. "Were you able to get any evidence from last night?"

"We tried. Last night was just a dead end," Quinn says, frustrated.

"But the police are actually helping now," Rachel adds.

"It's just one detective that's on the case," Quinn says in annoyance.

"You don't sound to happy about it," Kurt points out.

"That's because I'm not happy with who they gave us." And right on cue, her phone begins ringing. She sees 'Satan' on the screen and begrudgingly answers it. "I'll be there soon."

"I get to your apartment and you're not even here. I said first thing in the morning, Fabray. You'll be lucky if I don't kick your ass when I see you."

Quinn promptly hangs up and looks at the other two apologetically. "I have to go. But I'll come back soon, Kurt."

"Don't bother. I'll probably be out tomorrow."

She nods and turns to Rachel. "Do you need me to drive you back to your place?"

"Don't worry. I'll have a driver pick me up."

"Are you sure?"

Rachel leans over and presses a kiss against her cheek. "Yes. Now get out of here before I change my mind."

Quinn smiles as she gets up. "I'll call you later."

Rachel watches her leave the room with a matching smile. She doesn't turn back around until Kurt clears his throat.

"You two are at the annoyingly cute stage," he says.

"Oh hush."

"Did you finally seal the deal?"

She blushes. "No!"

He pouts. "Seriously? Still? Not even after last night's 'date'?" he air-quotes.

"Well with the way the night ended, I wasn't exactly in the mood for romance."

"That's a shame."

"Shut up."

They share a laugh. It's rare that Rachel gets this sort of alone time with her best friend. It's comforting to say the least. "How are you holding up?" she asks.

He sighs. "Honestly, that was the scariest thing I've ever been through. For a minute I really thought I was going to die."

Rachel swallows. "But you're okay now, and that's what matters."

Kurt nods and is silent for a moment as he thinks to himself. He then smiles. "All I remember before blacking out was Quinn ordering everyone around while you were weeping hysterically and Will was running around like a headless chicken. If I wasn't on the verge of death, I would've laughed."

"Well can you blame me? I was freaking out. And Quinn used to be a cop, remember? I guess she was trying to take control of the situation."

"Someone had to. Remind me to thank her later."

"I will," she says. She leans back in her chair and let's out a long breath.

"I know I'm not supposed to pry about the case, but has Quinn made any progress?"

Rachel nods. "She has a few leads…" she says hesitantly.

"What's wrong?" Kurt asks.

"She really thinks that it's Finn."

"Finn?"

"Yes," she answers quietly.

"Well, do you think that it could be him?"

She frowns even deeper to herself. "I don't want to think that it's him. I don't want to think that the Finn we knew would want to put you in the hospital."

"But it wasn't me he was trying to put in here," Kurt reminds her.

She feels her chest constrict for the thousandth time when she's yet again reminded that it was nearly Quinn that almost ended up here. Or the fact that she could've ended up worse.

"Are you completely sure it's not him?" Kurt asks after a long pause. "You know him better than I do."

" _Knew_ him. We haven't been cordial in years. I don't know him anymore, Kurt."

"Which shows that even you know people change. He could be a completely different person from what he was in high school. And I know you don't want to admit it, but there is the possibility that Quinn is right."

She nods because it's logical, but the younger high school girl in her still refuses to believe it. "Maybe I just have to figure it out for myself," she says, mostly to herself.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kurt asks.

She shakes her head and grabs her purse. "Nothing." She stands. "I'll be back a little later, okay?"

"Rachel…" he says warily, "please don't do anything stupid."

She rolls her eyes. "When have I ever done anything stupid?"

"It'll be hours before I get to the end of that list."

Rachel glares at him. "Goodbye, Kurt."

"Kidding. But seriously, don't do anything dramatic. And are you really going to come back later?"

"I said I would."

"Good. I put you down as an emergency contact so you can stay outside of visiting hours, if you want to."

She smiles. "Thanks."

"Oh and can you do me a favor?"

"Of course."

"Can you do everything in your power to make sure Will doesn't come and visit? I know he would drive me up the wall."

She chuckles. "I'll do my best. I don't even know where he is right now." Not that she really cares.

"So I'll see you later?" he asks hopefully.

She nods. "Definitely. Bye, Kurt."

* * *

"This is all you have?" Santana flips through the file. "Are you kidding me right now?"

Quinn rubs her temples, ready to throw the other woman out of the apartment. The only thing keeping her from doing so is Brittany's presence. "That's a lot for a single case file. What more do you want?"

"I was telling Santana that we have a couple leads," Brittany offers. They were all sat at the desk. Quinn and Santana are on opposite ends because if they were any closer, someone was likely to get hurt.

"Yeah, and they're nothing solid."

"But it's a start," Quinn says.

"Alright, well let's start with this. Your main guy, Finn Hudson, wasn't even there last night. His alibi checks out."

"He's not the only suspect. Did you get that list of everyone that was there?"

"I did, and I did a cross-check. The only ones that were there from this file was Mercedes Jones and Kitty Wilde. And there's no way in hell I'm going after Mercedes Jones. She has some of the biggest connections in town, and I'll be lucky if I can get a job working in mall security after this."

"Rachel was adamant about looking into her," Quinn says with a sigh. This is one thing she can agree with Santana on.

"She's off the list," Santana says with no room for argument. "So we start with Kitty Wilde."

"I spoke to her once. I didn't get much out of her, but it's pretty clear that she still has some resentment towards Rachel."

"Then I guess I should pay her a visit." Santana tosses the file in front of Quinn. "Make a copy of this."

Quinn takes it with a roll of her eyes and stomps over to the copy machine. As she scans everything, out of the corner of her eye, she sees Santana staring at her with her arms crossed. "What?" she says.

"Is there something else you're not telling me, Fabray?"

She turns to look at her. "Like what?"

"Gee, I don't know. You're pretty hell-bent on proving this is Finn Hudson's work. Why is that?"

"It's just because Finn is Rachel's ex-boyfriend and Quinn really likes her," Brittany says. Quinn throws her a look.

"I think there's more to it than that," Santana says to her girlfriend. "Like maybe Quinn here has something on him that she's not sharing."

Quinn clenches her jaw. She can't tell Santana about her talks with Jacob Ben Israel without risking getting thrown in jail, which the other woman would be delighted to do. She she does her best to keep her expression stoic. "It's just a hunch. I have a feeling about this guy." She hands over a new file with copies of everything to Santana.

"Uh huh." Santana snatches it out of her hand. "We'll see about that. Now if you'll excuse me, someone has to make progress on this case." She leans down to give Brittany a quick peck. Quinn grimaces. "Also, you should know that we're keeping an eye on your girlfriend."

Quinn furrows her brow. "Thanks?" At least she knows now that Rachel will be safe when she's not around.

* * *

After standing in front of the door for over five minutes, accepting that she won't be able to muster up the courage if she doesn't just get this over with, Rachel raises her hand and finally knocks on it.

"Just a second," the voice on the other side calls out.

She takes a step back and frowns as she looks around the apartment complex. This was the address that Tina gave her. She's not sure what exactly she was expecting. When the door opens, she clears her throat, and says, "Hello, Finn."

"Rachel?" For some reason, he seems even taller compared to the last time she saw him, which probably isn't possible. His features have matured a bit, but he still has the same youthful face she's always known. "What are you doing here?" he asks, surprised at the sudden visit.

"I was wondering if we could talk? Is that okay with you?"

"Yeah! Of course. Come in." He turns and accidentally bumps into the doorframe in his nervousness. He then steps aside and gestures for her to go in.

She surveys the small apartment. It's messy, in a typical boy way. It reminded her of the way his bedroom looked when they were in high school.

Finn's cheeks turn red as he scratches the back of his neck. "Sorry. I wasn't expecting anyone to come by."

"Did I come at a bad time?"

He shakes his head and stuffs his hands into his pockets and mumbles, "I wasn't doing anything today."

She nods. She looks at the couch and briefly contemplates sitting down, but decides against it. She doesn't know how long she'll be here for.

"Did you want something? Like to… drink? I have water and—"

"No thank you," she says with a smile.

He nods and looks down at the floor. He silently shifts back and forth on his feet for a moment before he says, "I heard about what happened to Kurt. Is he doing okay?"

"Kurt's okay," she answers. "They got to him just in time. He's going to be fine."

"Yeah. I would go visit him, but I don't know if he would want to see me."

Rachel doesn't answer because she doesn't know either. "I'll tell him that you wish him well."

"Cool, thanks." He sighs to himself. "A couple cops came by earlier to talk to me. They didn't say why, but after I found out about Kurt on the news, I figured that was why."

She frowns. "What did they say?"

"They just wanted to know where I was last night."

"Oh." She clears her throat.

"So they think I have something to do with… whatever is going on with you?"

"I don't know what the police think."

"Well, it's what Quinn Fabray thinks."

Her head snaps up to him. She doesn't like the way he says Quinn's name. "She works with me."

"Yeah, I know she's like an investigator or something," Finn says. "She came to talk to me." A hint of annoyance laces his voice.

"It's her job, Finn."

"And she's been following me." Disbelief flashes across his eyes. "Are you telling her to follow me?"

"I don't tell her what to do. I just hired her for this investigation, and she does what she feels is necessary."

"Do you think I have something to do with all of this? With Kurt? With you?"

"Everyone in my life has to be looked at. And—"

"That's not what I asked you, Rachel." His voice begins to rise. It doesn't sound angry, just full of sorrow and heartbreak. He steps closer and opens his mouth to speak again, but stops and closes his eyes as he takes a deep breath. "Sorry."

Rachel realizes she subconsciously moved away from him in fear. She was never afraid of him before, and she feels ridiculous now. "It's okay," she says softly.

"Why are you here?" he blurts. "I mean, is there a reason you came by?"

She shrugs. "I don't know. We haven't talked much since I moved back, and I just wanted to see how you're doing."

"I could be doing better, but," he gestures around the apartment, "I'm doing okay."

Rachel nods. "Look, I understand if you hate me, Finn."

"I don't hate you," he says. "Yeah, what happened sucked. But it's not like it's your fault you're not into guys. I just wish you would've told me. Maybe it wasn't real to you, but it was to me."

"Our relationship was real," she says. "I was just trying to figure everything out."

"And you couldn't at least talk to me about it?"

"I didn't want to hurt you." She crosses her arms and looks down at the floor. "I knew talking to you about it would've just upset you."

"Well it still hurt."

Rachel sighs. "I don't think I ever properly apologized, but I'm truly sorry, Finn. Even before we dated, you were a great friend to me. Before Kurt, you were my _only_ friend, and I took that for granted. If I could go back and do things over, I would. But I can't, and I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me."

Finn's face softens. He shrugs. "It was a long time ago. I'm over it."

"And I'm also sorry if me being here brings out bad memories." She picks up her purse. "I should go."

She turns to leave, but freezes when he puts a hand on her shoulder. "Rach, wait." When she makes no move to leave, he says, "I know that I was pissed for a while. And I know that you're going through some stuff right now." He pauses. "But I'll always care about you, and I would _never_ hurt you. I just want you to know that."

Rachel turns her head to look at him. "I believe you." And she does.

With that, she leaves.

* * *

Quinn pounds on the door. "Open up, Israel!" She's been knocking on Jacob Ben Israel's door for several minutes now. She went by his work only to discover that he never showed up today. This was the next place she went to find him. "I swear to God if I find out you're in there, I'm going to throw you down these stairs!"

"Whoa, that's a little violent, don't you think?"

She whips her head around to see Santana approaching her. "What are you doing here?"

"No, what are _you_ doing here?"

Quinn glances at the door then back at the detective. "I came to see someone, but I guess they're not home."

"And would this happen to pertain to Rachel Berry's case?"

She dodges the question. "Did you seriously follow me here?"

"Yes."

"I thought you were going to see Kitty Wilde."

"I will," Santana says, clearly loving how much she's getting on Quinn's nerves.

"Then why are you wasting time following me around?"

"Because I know you're withholding information," she looks at the door, "and I told you I'm going to find out what it is."

Quinn shakes her head. "Whatever." She walks off, only to have the other woman right behind her.

As they descend the stairs, Santana says, "There's something else I wanted to talk to you about. Did you ever consider the possibility that there's more than one person involved?"

Once they reach the bottom, Quinn turns to face her with a frown. "More than one person?"

"Yes, genius. You know I have a masters in psychology—"

"You've only mentioned that a thousand times."

"—which means I'm sort of an expert in profiling. And when I was looking through the file, I noticed that everything seems pretty inconsistent to be the work of just one person."

"So what you're saying is a group of people could be working together and conspiring against Rachel?"

"It's not too far-fetched. She's not exactly a ball of sunshine. I'm sure there's a lot of people that hate her." Santana wrinkles her nose. "Maybe you two really are made for each other."

"I get your point," Quinn interrupts.

Santana smirks. "Did this seriously never cross your mind?"

"Of course it did," Quinn says, trying not to look stupid.

"I'm sure. With that being said, this means we have to be looking at _everyone_ Rachel associates with, past and present. If you're so sure it's someone she went to high school with, they could easily be working with someone she met after that hates her just as much."

Quinn nods as she thinks thinks out loud, "Maybe if we can find just one, we can find out whoever else there is."

Santana shrugs. "Let's hope it's that easy."

* * *

"Rachel Berry here to see Ms. Sylvester," Rachel says warmly. It's futile because she's still met with a look of annoyance from Becky.

"I'll let her know you're here," the assistant says. Rachel sighs and takes a seat.

Will bursts into the room, out of breath, and says, "Sorry I'm late." He turns and smiles. "Hey, Becky."

"Go away, Schuester." He frowns and sits next to Rachel.

"So why are we here?" Rachel asks. Will had called her as soon as she left Finn's to meet him here.

"I don't know. Sue called me up and said we had to get here as soon as possible because she needed to talk to us about something."

Dread suddenly takes over her. "Do you think she's dropping me as her client? After last night?"

Will clasps his hands together and lets out a long breath. He seems just as worried. "I have no idea, Rachel."

"How did she sound on the phone?"

"The way Sue always sounds: angry and annoyed."

"I heard that!" Becky yells. "Lock it up."

Rachel pouts and sinks lower into her seat. This could possibly be the end of her career. What other agent would want to take her on after this? Sue Sylvester was not only known for producing stars, but also ruining them. "This is a disaster." She begins hyperventilating.

"Rachel, calm down," Will whispers harshly.

A door can be heard being thrown open. "Berry! Schuester! Get in here now!"

They both hurry out of their seats and quickly scamper to the agent's office. Rachel is still in panic mode, and it worsens as soon as she's face to face with Sue. "Listen, I don't know how this happened and I don't know why either and this isn't even my fault and it's definitely not Kurt's fault. Please don't—"

"Shush!" Sue rubs her temple. "I always get a headache when you're around. And that's not a coincidence. I haven't even given you the good news yet and you're already yammering away."

"Good news?" Rachel and Will say at the same time.

Sue nods. "Where is Porcelain, by the way? I kind of like staring at his oddly feminine features."

Rachel frowns. "…in the hospital."

"That's right! I heard that on the news this morning." Sue smiles and points at Rachel. "And this is great publicity, by the way. Your name was trending on Twitter for a while."

"Well he's fine, in case you were concerned."

"Rachel!" Will hisses.

Sue waves them off. "I have a conference call coming up, so I'm going to make this quick. You got that part."

"What!" Rachel shrieks. "I got the part?"

"That's what I just said, isn't it?" Sue shakes her head while mumbling all sorts of insults. "The studio called me this morning. It seems they made this decision even before last night's incident, so I guess you really blew them away at both auditions."

Rachel can't contain her excitement. "This is amazing!"

"Yeah, all I'm hearing is you talking, and I want to hear no talking."

She clamps her mouth shut, but her beaming smile remains.

Sue puts on her glasses as she looks at her computer screen. "I've arranged for you to meet with the producers on Friday morning. You will then do all of the administrative paperwork. Pay negotiations, filming schedules, things like that. Basically, this is when you officially accept the part."

Rachel nods fervently. "I know how this works."

"Good. I'm going to let them know that we have an agreement. Word is going to get out that you've been offered the part, and you should know this could conflict with any auditions you have in the near future."

"She doesn't have anything big coming up," Will says.

"I see." Sue takes off her glasses. "So now that I've relayed everything to you, get out of my office."

They leave the building. Rachel pulls her phone out and starts typing her message to Kurt. "I can't believe this is happening!" she squeals. Her first major starring role… she was losing hope that this day would come.

Will nods as he types on his own phone. "We need to make sure you're prepped for this role. You have to know that script inside and out. And you can't have anymore distractions."

Rachel rolls her eyes. "I know that."

"How is Fabray doing on the case?"

"I don't know. Why?"

"Because I need to know these things," he snaps, not happy with her answer.

"I'm sure they're making progress."

"What kind of progress? She has to keep me filled in, too."

Rachel takes a step back as she looks at him. "Last I checked, she doesn't work for you. And this doesn't involve you."

"Like hell it doesn't."

"You weren't the one that was nearly murdered last night, Will."

"Yeah? And it's not over, Rachel. They didn't succeed, and they're just going to try again."

She moves back even further. Being near him suddenly makes her nervous, and his words only send chills down her spine. She doesn't want to be alone with him. "I have to go."

"What?" He becomes confused. "We still have to go—"

"I don't care," she says. "I'm taking the rest of the day off."

She turns his back to him before he can say anything else and rushes to her car without looking back.

* * *

Quinn slowly lifts her face from the desk, then promptly drops her forehead against the hard wood. She repeats this action over and over.

Brittany comes out of her room and looks at Quinn. "You're still doing that? You're going to give yourself a concession."

"It's concussion," Quinn answers. She lifts her head and looks at her friend. "I seriously don't know what I'm doing anymore."

"Relax, it's just a brain fart. I get those sometimes." Brittany sits down next to her. "Is this about what you and Santana talked about earlier?"

Quinn nods. "I feel like I've been looking at everything wrong."

Brittany shrugs. "So… now just look at everything right!" She pulls out her phone and busies herself.

Quinn smiles. Leave it to Brittany to simplify everything.

"Oh hey, there's some news about Rachel on here."

Quinn sits up. "What is it?"

"It says she got a huge offer or something." Without thinking, Quinn snatches the phone from her. "Hey!"

Smiling as she skims through the news article, Quinn says to herself, "She got the part."

Brittany grabs her phone back. "That's good, right?"

"It's great, Britt."

"You should congratulate her."

Not needing to be told twice, Quinn hurries to her room and dials Rachel's number. It was already late, and she hasn't talked to Rachel since that morning. She's been so wrapped up all day that she's not surprised she didn't hear about this.

She furrows her brow when it hits her that Rachel hasn't personally told her yet.

The line rings and the brunette picks up right away. "Hello?"

"Hey," Quinn says with a smile. She notices that Rachel sounds out of breath. "You okay?"

"Yeah. I'm just walking into the hospital. I'm staying with Kurt for tonight."

"Oh."

"Is everything okay?"

Remembering why she called, she says, "I heard you got that part. Congratulations."

"Thank you." She hears shuffling for a moment before Rachel says, "Sorry. I was going to call and tell you, but I've been really busy today."

"Don't even worry," Quinn says. "But I'm really happy for you. I know how hard you've been working for this."

"And it finally paid off. I'm still in shock."

Quinn laughs. "I bet. You're going to be amazing."

Rachel is quiet. Quinn is about to ask if she's still there when she says, "You know, we should celebrate."

Not missing the suggestive tone, Quinn lifts an eyebrow and responds with, "Yes, we should. What did you have in mind?"

"I have a few things in mind. Maybe we can talk more about it tomorrow?"

Quinn swallows. "I'll call you."

"Good." Rachel sighs. "Okay, go get some sleep. I can't wait to see you."

"Me too. And tell Kurt I said hi."

"I will."

"Okay. Bye, Rachel."

"Bye, Quinn."

* * *

After Rachel hangs up with Quinn, she grabs her bag and pushes the door to Kurt's room open. "Hey," she says with a smile. She settles down on the couch by the bed.

"So they said they can release me tomorrow," Kurt says.

"Looks like you'll have my company to enjoy until then."

Kurt chuckles, then frowns at her. "Is everything okay? You sounded a little weird on the phone."

She nods. "I'm fine. I just didn't want to be alone tonight." It was true. She was overcome with that familiar feeling of being watched again. She knew she would've only felt better if she was with someone else, so she called Kurt.

"I'm glad you're here. It's nice to have someone that's not a nurse hanging around."

Rachel laughs. "Have you been bored?"

"Oh, don't get me started."

* * *

Hours later, in the middle of the night, Rachel and Kurt are both fast asleep in the hospital room. Silently, Rachel's phone goes off in her bag with a new message from a blocked number.

 **Take that part and you're dead!**

* * *

 **A/N:** Thank you for reading. Not spoiling anything, but there's going to be one big reveal next chapter :)

Also, I've mapped out the rest of the story and you should all know that there is going to be a total of 15 chapters.

Feel free to let me know what you think so far!


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